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Mike Kelley

Mike Kelley, City 17, 2007–09 Mixed media, Overall: 83 15/16 × 17 ⅛ × 17 ⅛ inches (213.2 × 43.5 cm), edition of 5

Mike Kelley, City 17, 2007–09

Mixed media, Overall: 83 15/16 × 17 ⅛ × 17 ⅛ inches (213.2 × 43.5 cm), edition of 5

Mike Kelley, Limpid Pool, 1987 Acrylic on canvas mounted on wood, 60 × 48 inches (152.4 × 121.9 cm)

Mike Kelley, Limpid Pool, 1987

Acrylic on canvas mounted on wood, 60 × 48 inches (152.4 × 121.9 cm)

Mike Kelley, Twinkling Coppers (from “Plato's Cave, Rothko's Chapel, Lincoln's Profile”), 1986 Acrylic on canvas with penny and string of multicolored flashing electrical Christmas lights, 60 × 60 × 3 ⅜ inches (152.4 × 152.4 × 8.6 cm)© Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All rights reserved/Licensed by VAGA, New York. Photo: © Douglas M. Parker Studio

Mike Kelley, Twinkling Coppers (from “Plato's Cave, Rothko's Chapel, Lincoln's Profile”), 1986

Acrylic on canvas with penny and string of multicolored flashing electrical Christmas lights, 60 × 60 × 3 ⅜ inches (152.4 × 152.4 × 8.6 cm)
© Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All rights reserved/Licensed by VAGA, New York. Photo: © Douglas M. Parker Studio

About

Positing cerebral concepts from psychology, philosophy, and art theory against kitschy craft mediums, awkward adolescent scenarios, and rudimentary renderings, Mike Kelley’s oeuvre works against art’s hierarchical history as it expands its breadth. His 2005 project, “Day Is Done,” is a massive, amorphous collection of works in diverse media that reconstruct purported “repressed memories” of generic high–school activities as recorded in anonymous yearbook photographs. He scrutinizes moments of ritual and tradition by restaging scenes common in American adolescence, such as school dances and Halloween activities, investigating the moral and experiential subtexts of these events in the process.

Mike Kelley was born in 1954 in Detroit, Michigan, and died in 2012 in Los Angeles, California. He received his B.A. in 1976 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and his M.F.A. in 1978 from California Institute of the Arts, Valencia. Recent solo exhibitions include “Categorical Imperative and Morgue,” Van Abbemuseum, Stedelijk, The Netherlands (2000); “Sod and Sodie Sock (w/Paul McCarthy),” Biennale d’art contemporain de Lyon, Institut d’art contemporain, France (2003); “Mike Kelley–The Uncanny,” The Tate Liverpool, England (2004, traveled to MUMOK, Museum of Modern Art, Vienna); “Profounders vertes,” Musée du Louvre, Paris (2006); “Day is Done Judson Church Dance,” Judson Memorial Church, New York (2009); “Themes and Variations from 35 Years,” The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2012); “Mobile Homestead,” Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Michigan (2013); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2013); “An Homage to Mike Kelley,” MoMA PS1, New York (2013); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2014).

Fairs, Events & Announcements

Mike Kelley and Franz West’s poster design for performance of To Be Read Aloud (À haute voix) (1999). Artwork © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All rights reserved/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; and © Archiv Franz West

Performance

Mike Kelley and Franz West
To Be Read Aloud (À haute voix)

October 13, October 20, and November 21, 2018, 9pm
Centre Pompidou, Paris
www.centrepompidou.fr

To Be Read Aloud (À haute voix) (1999) is an experimental theater piece by artists Mike Kelley and Franz West. On the occasion of West’s retrospective at Centre Pompidou, director Fanny de Chaillé presents a reenactment of this work—a dialogue in which the artists reflect on the development of their practices within the avant-garde scenes of Los Angeles and Vienna since the 1970s—within West’s installation Auditorium (1992). The event is free with museum admission.

Mike Kelley and Franz West’s poster design for performance of To Be Read Aloud (À haute voix) (1999). Artwork © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All rights reserved/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; and © Archiv Franz West

Ed Ruscha, Even Though He’s Light Years Away, His Heart Belongs to Me, 1963 © Ed Ruscha

Art Fair

Seattle Art Fair 2018

August 2–5, 2018, booth A09
CenturyLink Field Event Center, Seattle
www.seattleartfair.com

Gagosian is pleased to present Out of This World: Artists Explore Space, a booth curated by Larry Gagosian for the 2018 Seattle Art Fair. The presentation gathers works that reveal artistic and scientific explorations of the cosmos. Featured artists include Richard Avedon, Andisheh Avini, Chris Burden, Alexander Calder, Vija Celmins, Ellen Gallagher, Andreas Gursky, Damien Hirst, Neil Jenney, Mike Kelley, Yves Klein, Vera Lutter, Brice Marden, Marc Newson, Nam June Paik, Thomas Ruff, Ed Ruscha, Tom Sachs, Taryn Simon, Yves Tanguy, and Andy Warhol, among others.

To receive a PDF with detailed information on the works, please contact the gallery at inquire@gagosian.com. To attend the fair, purchase tickets at seattleartfair.com.

Ed Ruscha, Even Though He’s Light Years Away, His Heart Belongs to Me, 1963 © Ed Ruscha

Mark Grotjahn, Untitled (African II, Gated Front and Back Mask M44.e), 2015 © Mark Grotjahn. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio

Art Fair

FOG Design+Art 2018

January 11–14, 2018, booth 209
Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, San Francisco
fogfair.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in FOG Design+Art Fair 2018, presenting a selection of works by Davide Balula, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler, Piero Golia, Mark Grotjahn, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Houseago, Mike Kelley, Giuseppe Penone, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Taryn Simon, Jeff Wall, and others.

Contact sanfrancisco@gagosian.com if you wish to receive a PDF with detailed information on the works. Tickets available at www.eventbrite.com.

Mark Grotjahn, Untitled (African II, Gated Front and Back Mask M44.e), 2015 © Mark Grotjahn. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio

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Museum Exhibitions

Albert Oehlen, Untitled, 1997/2005 © Albert Oehlen. Photo: Lothar Schnepf

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Albert Oehlen
“Grandi quadri miei con piccoli quadri di altri”

September 5, 2021–February 20, 2022
Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland
masilugano.ch

In this exhibition, Albert Oehlen: Big Paintings by Me with Small Paintings by Others”, select works from Oehlen’s personal art collection are on view alongside some of his most significant paintings. In staging this large-scale exhibition, Oehlen aims to make relationships perceptible between his artworks and those by artists whose practices he has long admired. Work by Richard Artschwager, Willem de Kooning, Duane Hanson, Mike Kelley, and Franz West, among others, is included.

Albert Oehlen, Untitled, 1997/2005 © Albert Oehlen. Photo: Lothar Schnepf

Glenn Brown, Lemon Sunshine, 2001 © Glenn Brown

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00s. Collection Cranford
Les années 2000

October 24, 2020–May 30, 2021
Mo.Co. Contemporary, Montpellier, France
www.moco.art

This exhibition of work from the Cranford Collection, established by Muriel and Freddy Salem in 1999, aims to define the identity of the 2000s by creating a dialogue between one hundred artworks by a multigenerational array of artists who contributed to shaping the beginning of the millennium. Work by Glenn Brown, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Albert Oehlen, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall, Franz West, and Christopher Wool is included.

Glenn Brown, Lemon Sunshine, 2001 © Glenn Brown

Installation view, Untitled, 2020, Punta della Dogana, Venice, March 22–December 13, 2020. Artwork © Thomas Houseago. Photo: Marco Cappelletti/DSL Studio

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Untitled, 2020

March 22–November 4, 2020
Punta della Dogana, Venice
www.palazzograssi.it

Conceived and curated by Thomas Houseago, Muna El Fituri, and Caroline Bourgeois, Untitled, 2020 places into dialogue works in a broad range of media by more than sixty artists held by the Pinault Collection, international museums, and private collections. The exhibition centers around a re-creation of Houseago’s studio in Tadao Ando’s cube room, in the heart of Punta della Dogana. Work by Ellen Gallagher, Duane Hanson, Mike Kelley, Henry Moore, and Nam June Paik is included.

Installation view, Untitled, 2020, Punta della Dogana, Venice, March 22–December 13, 2020. Artwork © Thomas Houseago. Photo: Marco Cappelletti/DSL Studio

Taryn Simon, Oxalis tuberosa, Peru (7CFR) (prohibited), 2010, from the series Contraband, 2010 © Taryn Simon

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Civilisation, Photography, Now

June 13–October 18, 2020
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, New Zealand
www.aucklandartgallery.com

Civilisation, Photography, Now features more than two hundred works from one hundred international photographers. The exhibition considers patterns of mass behavior and the complexities of life in twenty-first-century urban environments. This show originated at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, as Civilization: The Way We Live Now. Work by Mike Kelley, Vera Lutter, and Taryn Simon is included.

Taryn Simon, Oxalis tuberosa, Peru (7CFR) (prohibited), 2010, from the series Contraband, 2010 © Taryn Simon

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Press

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