Mark Sachs, Founder of The Smile Face Museum
Originally founded in 1992 in Mark's Maryland basement, the museum has now found a home in an artist-run Bushwick basement and is open to the public for the first time in 20 years.
Inside The Smile Face Museum. Image Courtesy of The Smile Face Museum. (Via Animal)
Over the years, the smiley face has been able to adapt to the culture it lives in, existing in almost every form. "This unique collection contains artifacts from more than five decades of smile face cultural production, and offers a rare opportunity to experience a concrete accounting of a seemingly infinite presence. Founder Mark Sachs' curatorial directive for The Museum is that it encompass the sacred to the profane, the commonplace to the bizarre," Adrienne Garbini, the Director of Operations for the museum tells Animal. And, with one of the first emoji art exhibitions opening up just last year, the history of the smiley face is only just beginning.
Installation of Real McCoy (April 13-15), featuring Smiley Face Plastic Flower Knick-Knack from the Sarah Jacobson Collection, 2014. Image courtesy of The Smile Face Museum and Paul Mpagi Sepuya. (Via Animal)
The Smile Face Museum's closing exhibition will be held from 12-7 at 228 ½ Boerum Street in Bushwick on April 27th.