Reno Museum Hosts 92 Event Scores
Ken Friedman’s text-based works, spanning six decades, are now on display at the University of Nevada, Reno.
By Andrew Yang ·
Ninety-two text-based instructions are currently displayed at the John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art in Reno, Nevada. The exhibition, titled Ken Friedman: 92 Events, runs through November 21, 2026. The works span more than six decades of creation, from 1956 to 2019.
The pieces are printed on plain paper and presented as simple scores. According to a 2023 essay by Ditte Mauritzon, these works are produced to be shown in multiple venues at nearly no cost. Each museum determines whether to display the works as text, objects, or performances. The current installation occupies the Front Door Gallery at the College of Liberal Arts on the University of Nevada, Reno campus.
The exhibition began in 2019 at Tongji University in Shanghai, where Friedman serves as a professor of design innovation studies. It subsequently traveled to a regional art museum in Kalmar, Sweden, his home base since 2014. In 2020, the show moved to the Adam Art Gallery in Wellington, New Zealand, the Museo Vostell in Malpartida de Cáceres, Spain, and the Jonas Mekas Visual Art Center in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Following a stop at the Sala Uno Centro Internazionale d’Arte Contemporanea in Rome, the exhibition toured eight museums in the United States. These venues are located in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, Nebraska, Maryland, and California. The California locations included Torrance and San Diego. The show now concludes its current leg in Reno.
The works trace the history of instruction-based art, also known as Fluxus. This movement emerged in Manhattan in the late 1950s when musicians influenced by John Cage redefined time-based art by moving from sound into language. Artists like George Brecht, Jackson Mac Low, Allan Kaprow, and Dick Higgins used short scripts for proposed actions. Friedman became the youngest member of the Fluxus group in 1966 while studying at Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois.
Friedman established Fluxus West, a conceptual outpost for western states, after receiving permission from George Maciunas, the group’s founder. Friedman worked as an artist, designer, and management consultant before entering academia. He previously served as a professor at the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo. He is currently a distinguished professor emeritus at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, where he was dean of the Faculty of Design.
The exhibition catalogue includes extensive commentary for more than half of the ninety-two pieces. The works reference various Fluxus figures, including John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Dick Higgins. Specific pieces include Stage Reversal (1966), which involves a naked performer dressing, and Untitled Card Event (1957). Other instructions involve mailing objects, such as chairs, to recipients or oneself. Flow System (1972) served as a model for correspondence art exhibitions held after 1973.
The scores also reference media such as radio, television, and film. Pieces cite the 1950s program Winky-Dink and You and movies starring Mickey Rooney and Kirk Douglas. The collection mixes conceptual works dedicated to Copernicus and Sophocles with gags about bird calls and buying coffee. Open and Shut Case (1965) features a box with a cover made from a legal document. Visitors to the Reno installation are invited to help dismantle the exhibit at the end of the show.
