Who We Are

About Us

A photograph of a performance in which a yellow light silhouettes a darkened figure in profile standing on a platform holding a slim vase of flowers. A chair can be seen in front of them as they face the left side of the image. Two video monitors flank the scene.

Mineo Aayamaguchi, Inner Colour, performance image, 35mm, May 13, 1982, Franklin Furnace Archive.

Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc.’s mission is to present, preserve, interpret, proselytize and advocate on behalf of avant-garde art, especially forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, cultural bias, their ephemeral nature, or politically unpopular content.

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History

A color photograph of an open book whose pages have been burned and charred. Some of the surviving text appears to be redacted.

Sonia Balassanian,  Black Black Days, installation image, 35mm, November 17, 1982, Franklin Furnace Archive.

Franklin Furnace was founded in 1976 to serve artists who chose publishing as a primary, “democratic” artistic medium, and were not being supported by existing arts organizations. During the last 45 years, Franklin Furnace has gained a national and international reputation for identifying artists who have changed the terms by which contemporary art is discussed.

Check out the Timeline, Texts about FF and the bibliography.

 

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People

A dramatic black-and-white image of the right hand and shoulder of a person. It is bright white on a very dense black background with a dusting of white to the left of the figure

Eric Bogosian, Men Inside, performance announcement mailer, 5X5 in, February 5, 1981, Franklin Furnace Archive.

Meet our staff and partners, and learn about our sister organizations.

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Governance

An abstracted image of an urban subject. The top third of the image is devoted to a multi-story building, with the lights on in the ground floor windows, against a darkening blue sky. The middle third features a yellow glowing figure walking diagonally across the scene following a dashed yellow line, and the bottom third shows a black silhouetted figure standing in front of a dark red background framed in a lattice grid.

Kendall Buster, Watch Night, installation image, 35 mm, September 28, 1984, Franklin Furnace Archive. 

Franklin Furnace IRS Forms and Privacy Policies can be found here.

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