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FOUND: The Magazine, the Stuff
An exhibition of contents from FOUND magazine
January 7, 2005 - January 29, 2005

Press Release:
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art presents the exhibition Found: the Magazine, the Stuff in the Front Gallery from January 7 through January 29, 2005 at Intuit, 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday; admission is free and open to the public. Magazine founder Davy Rothbart will be present at the opening on January 7 from 5-8 p.m. to perform a reading in Intuit's performance space.

The exhibition will showcase the materials that make up the critically-acclaimed publication Found Magazine-lost Polaroids, old love notes, to-do lists, failed poetry, drafts of resumes, Post-it notes, and more. Discovered by pedestrians everywhere across the nation in trash cans, on street corners or in parking lots, or inside abandoned buildings, these items are submitted via post mail and e-mail to Davy Rothbart and the magazine's Chicago-based editor Jason Bitner for publication in print and on the Internet at www.foundmagazine.com.

In 1999, one note, found by Rothbart, started it all. The contents are simple: "Mario, I hate you, you said you had to work then whys your car HERE at HER place? You're a liar. I hate you. I fucking hate you. Amber. P.S. Page me later." Two years later, the magazine began as a grass-roots effort, publishing 700 copies, and three years later, it boasts a circulation of 20,000. Furthermore, Rothbart is currently on a 120-city/50-state tour of the United States, and was a guest on the David Letterman Show in May. Ed Schad writes: "Such heartbreaking human moments form the bulk of the magazine, presenting a reality that is tender, funny, brutal, but never certain and always clouded in an air of intrigue."