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)

Ohne Titel, 1994

Mike Kelley

Ohne Titel, 1994

Sale Date: December 2, 2005

Auction Closed

Double pistil and stamen, 1982

Mike Kelley

Double pistil and stamen, 1982

Sale Date: November 11, 2005

Auction Closed

Original sin, 1997

Mike Kelley

Original sin, 1997

Sale Date: November 11, 2005

Auction Closed

Runaway, 1999

Mike Kelley

Runaway, 1999

Sale Date: November 11, 2005

Auction Closed

More tragic! More plangent! More..., 1985–1996

Mike Kelley

More tragic! More plangent! More..., 1985–1996

Sale Date: November 11, 2005

Auction Closed

Two doubles and another, 1989

Mike Kelley

Two doubles and another, 1989

Sale Date: November 11, 2005

Auction Closed

Free gesture frozen, yet refusing to submit..., 1988

Mike Kelley

Free gesture frozen, yet refusing to submit..., 1988

Sale Date: November 11, 2005

Auction Closed

Memory ware flat no.2, 2000

Mike Kelley

Memory ware flat no.2, 2000

Sale Date: November 11, 2005

Auction Closed

Basic building block, 1997

Mike Kelley

Basic building block, 1997

Sale Date: November 9, 2005

Auction Closed

Untitled - Far down underground......, 1981

Mike Kelley

Untitled - Far down underground......, 1981

Sale Date: November 9, 2005

Auction Closed

Untitled (Feeling bad), 1978

Mike Kelley

Untitled (Feeling bad), 1978

Sale Date: November 9, 2005

Auction Closed

Tiger and saddle shoe (various sizes), 1991

Mike Kelley

Tiger and saddle shoe (various sizes), 1991

Sale Date: November 9, 2005

Auction Closed

Timeless painting # 3, 1995

Mike Kelley

Timeless painting # 3, 1995

Sale Date: November 10, 2005

Auction Closed

Timeless painting # 10, 1995

Mike Kelley

Timeless painting # 10, 1995

Sale Date: November 10, 2005

Auction Closed

We communicate only through our shared..., 1995

Mike Kelley

We communicate only through our shared..., 1995

Sale Date: November 10, 2005

Auction Closed

Reversible cross, 1989

Mike Kelley

Reversible cross, 1989

Sale Date: October 23, 2005

Auction Closed

Alma pater

Mike Kelley

Sale Date: October 10, 2005

Auction Closed

Unlucky clover (from Pansy Metal, Clovered..., 1989

Mike Kelley

Unlucky clover (from Pansy Metal, Clovered..., 1989

Sale Date: September 28, 2005

Auction Closed

Goethe quote, 1992

Mike Kelley

Goethe quote, 1992

Sale Date: June 8, 2005

Auction Closed

Oh you're so big, 1983

Mike Kelley

Oh you're so big, 1983

Sale Date: June 6, 2005

Auction Closed

Kissing kidneys, 1989

Mike Kelley

Kissing kidneys, 1989

Sale Date: June 6, 2005

Auction Closed

I have decided opinions, 1983

Mike Kelley

I have decided opinions, 1983

Sale Date: June 6, 2005

Auction Closed

Pansy metal clovered hoof, 1989

Mike Kelley

Pansy metal clovered hoof, 1989

Sale Date: June 6, 2005

Auction Closed

Alma pater (diptych), 1992

Mike Kelley

Alma pater (diptych), 1992

Sale Date: June 6, 2005

Auction Closed

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