Sonny Smith: Anthology of Unknown Music, Volume 1 @Bolinas Museum

Editor’s Pick

“The last chance to catch the exhibition of Sonny Smith's dreamt-up ephemera from fictional artists, the closing celebration brings to life some of the imagined songs and artists in Sonny Smith’s exhibition via musicians Chris Cohen and The Rhinestone Barbarians. Bonus: it’s also the final day to see Waz Thomas’s Making the Cut III, an exhibition of Thomas’s collages curated by Jessica Shaefer.”

-Aaron Harbour

About the Event

Join us for the closing of Anthology of Unknown Music, Volume 1, featuring live performances by Chris Cohen and Rhinestone Sunsets. This final gathering brings the exhibition to life through music, marking the last chance to experience the full installation.

About the Exhibition

Curated by Noelle Hiam

Anthology of Unknown Music, Volume 1 is a collection of musical works and associated visual memorabilia imagined by Sonny Smith, an American musician, playwright, and artist based in West Marin. Centered around Smith’s anthology of twenty recorded songs by invented artists and bands, the exhibition presents accompanying LP covers and sculptures by various collaborators commissioned by Smith. The result is a group exhibition of over 30 artists offering their own visions of to Sonny’s fantastical musical narrative, as well as ceramic and multimedia pieces by Smith himself, including a functioning custom jukebox. The bands and their histories span genres and are often populated by characters identified as outcasts, weirdos, and freaks, whose songs are inspired by death, love, and atypical transformation.