decade

1930s

1937

Tom Marioni is born in Cincinnati.

decade

1950s

1955–59 1955

Tom Marioni attends the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

1959

Tom Marioni is drawn to San Francisco’s Beat poetry and jazz scenes, and moves there in 1959.

decade

1960s

1960–63 1960

Tom Marioni is stationed in Germany with the US Army.

decade

1970s

1970

Tom Marioni founds the Museum of Conceptual Art, an alternative art space in San Francisco. The museum continues operating until 1984.

1970

The Oakland Museum of California organizes Tom Marioni’s first museum exhibition, The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends Is the Highest Form of Art. For the exhibition, Marioni invites 16 friends to the museum on a Monday (when it is normally closed) and leaves the detritus for the installation. The work, which is an example of social sculpture, has been repeated in institutions all over the world.

1973

Tom Marioni begins hosting Wednesday night salons in his San Francisco studio as a social gathering of friends and artists.

decade

2010s

2011

Joe Goode, Stephen Kaltenbach, Mike Kelley, Tom Marioni, Bruce Nauman, Senga Nengudi, Allen Ruppersberg, and Ed Ruscha are included in the group exhibition Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974–1981 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

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