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)

Feudal war, 1987

Mike Kelley

Feudal war, 1987

Sale Date: November 16, 2007

Auction Closed

Empathy displacement, humanoid morphology,..., 1990

Mike Kelley

Empathy displacement, humanoid morphology,..., 1990

Sale Date: November 16, 2007

Auction Closed

Textural index, landscape contra figure, 1990

Mike Kelley

Textural index, landscape contra figure, 1990

Sale Date: November 16, 2007

Auction Closed

Extracurricular activity projective..., 2004–2005

Mike Kelley

Extracurricular activity projective..., 2004–2005

Sale Date: November 15, 2007

Auction Closed

Written in the wind (various sizes), 1991

Mike Kelley

Written in the wind (various sizes), 1991

Sale Date: November 15, 2007

Auction Closed

Kappa, pond of desire, 1984

Mike Kelley

Kappa, pond of desire, 1984

Sale Date: November 14, 2007

Auction Closed

Singles and couples (diptych), 1991

Mike Kelley

Singles and couples (diptych), 1991

Sale Date: November 14, 2007

Auction Closed

Estral star, 1989

Mike Kelley

Estral star, 1989

Sale Date: October 16, 2007

Auction Closed

Devil bush, 1988

Mike Kelley

Devil bush, 1988

Sale Date: October 15, 2007

Auction Closed

Street sign, 2004

Mike Kelley

Street sign, 2004

Sale Date: September 29, 2007

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1989

Mike Kelley

Untitled, 1989

Sale Date: September 12, 2007

Auction Closed

Estral star, 1989

Mike Kelley

Estral star, 1989

Sale Date: June 21, 2007

Auction Closed

Untitled (+ another; 2 works from Pansy..., 1989

Mike Kelley

Untitled (+ another; 2 works from Pansy..., 1989

Sale Date: June 2, 2007

Auction Closed

Ohne Titel, 1994

Mike Kelley

Ohne Titel, 1994

Sale Date: June 1, 2007

Auction Closed

Kappa, pond of desire (Story board for video , 1984

Mike Kelley

Kappa, pond of desire (Story board for video , 1984

Sale Date: May 22, 2007

Auction Closed

Garbage drawing #30, 1988

Mike Kelley

Garbage drawing #30, 1988

Sale Date: May 18, 2007

Auction Closed

The big day (in 2 parts), 1980

Mike Kelley

The big day (in 2 parts), 1980

Sale Date: May 18, 2007

Auction Closed

Missing time color exercise - Reversed - no. 1, 2002

Mike Kelley

Missing time color exercise - Reversed - no. 1, 2002

Sale Date: May 17, 2007

Auction Closed

Light - Time-- Space modulator (in 13 parts), 2003

Mike Kelley

Light - Time-- Space modulator (in 13 parts), 2003

Sale Date: May 17, 2007

Auction Closed

Too long at the fair and Lost (diptych), 1984

Mike Kelley

Too long at the fair and Lost (diptych), 1984

Sale Date: May 17, 2007

Auction Closed

Towhead n'Ganga, enclosed in darkness,..., 1996

Mike Kelley

Towhead n'Ganga, enclosed in darkness,..., 1996

Sale Date: May 17, 2007

Auction Closed

Garbage drawing #37, 1988

Mike Kelley

Garbage drawing #37, 1988

Sale Date: May 16, 2007

Auction Closed

Timeless/Authorless - 7, 1995

Mike Kelley

Timeless/Authorless - 7, 1995

Sale Date: April 25, 2007

Auction Closed

Test room containing multiple stimuli known..., 1999

Mike Kelley

Test room containing multiple stimuli known..., 1999

Sale Date: February 27, 2007

Auction Closed

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