Mike Kelley

(American, 1954–2012)

Mike Kelley was an American artist regarded as one of the most influential members of the Conceptual Art movement. Concerned with abjection, youth, class, and the divide between high and low culture, Kelley’s work was often both playful and grotesque, using found objects like stuffed animals, knickknacks, and child-like drawings in its skeptical investigation of societal norms. Working across disciplines in installations, sculpture, drawings, paintings, and videos, Kelley’s career was both eclectic and prolific. “I think they’re really standardized kinds of repressed things in the culture—embarrassing things, like sexual dysfunction and the scatological,” he once said of his subject matter. “I started seeing throughout my work that a lot of these traditional, low comedy forms and subject matters were operating. I wanted to start to deal with that in a more conscious way.” Born on October 27, 1954 in Wayne, MI, the artist studied at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where he formed the band Destroy All Monsters with fellow visual artist Jim Shaw. His interest in politics and performance carried over into his graduate work at the California Institute of the Arts in the late 1970s, where he studied with John Baldessari and befriended Tony Oursler. Suffering from depression throughout his life, the artist committed suicide on January 31, 2012 in South Pasadena, CA at the age of 57. In 2012, the posthumous retrospective “Mike Kelley: Themes and Variations from 35 Years” opened at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and travelled to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, MoMA PS1 in Queens, and finally the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Today, Kelley’s works are held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Goetz Collection in Munich, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.

Mike Kelley News

Art & Exhibitions

Best in Show: Here Are the 5 Buzziest Museum Exhibitions Everyone Is Talking About in Paris

Best in Show: Here Are the 5 Buzziest Museum Exhibitions Everyone Is Talking About in Paris

Art & Exhibitions

Too Cute! An Upcoming Show in London Will Unpack the Power of Cuteness With Works by Juliana Huxtable, Wong Ping, and More

by Richard Whiddington

Too Cute! An Upcoming Show in London Will Unpack the Power of Cuteness With Works by Juliana Huxtable, Wong Ping, and More

Hauser and Wirth Announces Its New Paris Gallery's Inaugural Show and Its Debut Director

by Eileen Kinsella

Hauser and Wirth Announces Its New Paris Gallery's Inaugural Show and Its Debut Director

Mike Kelley Artworks

Mike Kelley (787 results)

The thirteen seasons (Heavy on the winter)..., 1994

Mike Kelley

The thirteen seasons (Heavy on the winter)..., 1994

Sale Date: June 29, 2011

Auction Closed

Bowling bag, 1991

Mike Kelley

Bowling bag, 1991

Sale Date: June 20, 2011

Auction Closed

Heidi: Midlife crisis trauma center and..., 1992

Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley

Heidi: Midlife crisis trauma center and..., 1992

Sale Date: June 1, 2011

Auction Closed

Birthplace of Lincoln (+ Birthplace of..., 1985–1996

Mike Kelley

Birthplace of Lincoln (+ Birthplace of..., 1985–1996

Sale Date: June 8, 2011

Auction Closed

The divided house of faith and reason, 1983

Mike Kelley

The divided house of faith and reason, 1983

Sale Date: May 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Unwashed abstraction #2, 1988

Mike Kelley

Unwashed abstraction #2, 1988

Sale Date: May 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Garbage drawing #13, 1988

Mike Kelley

Garbage drawing #13, 1988

Sale Date: May 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Garbage drawing #64, 1988

Mike Kelley

Garbage drawing #64, 1988

Sale Date: May 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Bush drawing, 1988

Mike Kelley

Bush drawing, 1988

Sale Date: May 11, 2011

Auction Closed

His master's voice, 1983

Mike Kelley

His master's voice, 1983

Sale Date: May 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Boy swag lamp, 2005

Mike Kelley

Boy swag lamp, 2005

Sale Date: May 11, 2011

Auction Closed

City 6/No. 1, 2008

Mike Kelley

City 6/No. 1, 2008

Sale Date: May 11, 2011

Auction Closed

The eel and the clam (4 works), 1986

Mike Kelley

The eel and the clam (4 works), 1986

Sale Date: May 12, 2011

Auction Closed

City 5, 2007

Mike Kelley

Sale Date: May 12, 2011

Auction Closed

Missing time color exercise (Reversed) no. 5 , 2002

Mike Kelley

Missing time color exercise (Reversed) no. 5 , 2002

Sale Date: May 12, 2011

Auction Closed

Ahh... youth (in 8 parts), 1991

Mike Kelley

Ahh... youth (in 8 parts), 1991

Sale Date: May 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Craft morphology flow chart (in 60 parts), 1991

Mike Kelley

Craft morphology flow chart (in 60 parts), 1991

Sale Date: May 10, 2011

Auction Closed

Garbage drawing #66, 1988

Mike Kelley

Garbage drawing #66, 1988

Sale Date: March 16, 2011

Auction Closed

Far down underground, to mushroom planet, an , 1981

Mike Kelley

Far down underground, to mushroom planet, an , 1981

Sale Date: March 8, 2011

Auction Closed

Garbage drawing no.37, 1988

Mike Kelley

Garbage drawing no.37, 1988

Sale Date: March 8, 2011

Auction Closed

X-C primer, 1995

Mike Kelley

X-C primer, 1995

Sale Date: March 8, 2011

Auction Closed

Extracurricular activity projective..., 2004–2005

Mike Kelley

Extracurricular activity projective..., 2004–2005

Sale Date: February 18, 2011

Auction Closed

Poetics country, 1997

Mike Kelley and Tony Oursler

Poetics country, 1997

Sale Date: January 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Reclining figure, 2006

Mike Kelley

Reclining figure, 2006

Sale Date: December 14, 2010

Auction Closed

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