Tom Marioni
Peter d’Agostino © 2024 Video installation Preview: 5 of 15 min loop Edition: 5+2 AP
Tom Marioni in his San Francisco studio, 2024.
Born in 1937 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Tom moved to San Francisco in 1959. His first sound work was “One Second Sculpture” (1969) and first museum show “The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art” (1970), an early example of social art as a sculpture action, was at the Oakland Museum of California. In 1970, Marioni founded the Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA), which he described at the time as “a large-scale social work of art.” Until the museum closed in 1984, he organized many groundbreaking shows, including “Sound Sculpture As” (1970). MOCA has entered history as one of the first alternative art spaces.