Mike Kelley
°1954, Detroit (US) - 2012, South Pasadena (US).
Mike Kelley is considered one of the most significant artists of the last 30 years and has worked together with numerous artists, such as Paul McCarthy, Jim Shaw and Tony Oursler. Kelley’s artistic practice is extremely diverse in medium and includes performances, installations, drawings, and sculptures (made of multiple materials and non-art objects, including stuffed animals).
His work is characterised by the way it integrates popular culture (nourished by philosophy, literature and art history) and by the exuberance of his visual style which is opposed to aesthetics of minimalism as well as to the neutrality of pop art and abstraction. In this way Kelley challenges traditional attitudes towards topics such as religion, sexuality, gender, education and even art history. It is this constant challenge and variety of influences that makes Kelley’s works -sometimes subtly, uncannily or even bluntly- so intriguing and powerful.
Mike Kelley has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Recent solo exhibitions of his work have been held in institutions such as MOCA, Los Angeles; HangarBicocca, Milan; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; MoMA/PS1, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; WIELS, Brussels; Musée du Louvre in Paris; and the Tate Liverpool.
He has also participated in group exhibitions in major institutions such as the MUMOK, Vienna; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Palazzo Grassi, Venice; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; MOCA, Los Angeles; the Pinakothek der Modern in Munich, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Kelley has also participated in Documenta 9 & 10 at Kassel in 1992 & 1997; in multiple Whitney Biennials, and others held internationally.
His works are included in major public and private collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Broad Collection, Los Angeles; MOCA, Los Angeles; Tate Collection, London; the Falckenberg Collection in Hamburg; and the Museum Brandhorst, Munich.
The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts is represented by the following gallery;
click through to disocver more of his work.
Hauser & Wirth, Zürich / London / Somerset / New York / Los Angeles
You can also find more works by Mike Kelley on his own website.