The Jomo Collective: David McManaway and Friends

This exhibition features found object assemblage and artwork created by friends and associates of David McManaway. David McManaway, Jim Love and Roy Fridge, from Chicago, Amarillo and Beeville (respectively) migrated to Dallas, Houston and Port Aransas in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Together they spearheaded a midcentury Texas chapter in the long-standing tradition of assemblage or found object art. David McManaway moved to Dallas in 1959 and abandoned painting in favor of assemblage art, and together with Love, Fridge, Winter and Williams, established a resurgence of interest in the transformative power of creative appropriation of discarded objects. The members of this artist collective, a rare occurrence today, were close companions who supported independent and shared artistic pursuits. Much of the art in this exhibition was created in response to their relationships with one another resulting in visual puns, inside jokes and shared experiences at home, in the studio and in the art world. Artwork by other McManaway colleagues Harold Hill, Jack Boynton, Sam Gummelt, Robin Ragin, Norma McManaway, Tracy Hicks and Bill Komodore expand the definition of the Jomo Collective to include a few of the many artists inspired by their mentor and friend, David McManaway.

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