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)

Extracurricular Activity Projective..., 2004–2005

Mike Kelley

Extracurricular Activity Projective..., 2004–2005

Sale Date: November 16, 2022

Auction Closed

Double Figure (Polka Dot), 1990

Mike Kelley

Double Figure (Polka Dot), 1990

Sale Date: November 18, 2022

Auction Closed

More Tragic! More Plangent! . . . More Purple!, 1985

Mike Kelley

More Tragic! More Plangent! . . . More Purple!, 1985

Sale Date: November 17, 2022

Auction Closed

Pay For Your Pleasure, 1988

Mike Kelley

Pay For Your Pleasure, 1988

Sale Date: November 17, 2022

Auction Closed

Know Nothing and If You Don't Want to Know..., 1984

Mike Kelley

Know Nothing and If You Don't Want to Know..., 1984

Sale Date: November 17, 2022

Auction Closed

Black Garbage (Grassy Island [Canadian]);..., 2001

Mike Kelley

Black Garbage (Grassy Island [Canadian]);..., 2001

Sale Date: September 28, 2022

Auction Closed

Pansy Metal / Clovered Hoof, 1989

Mike Kelley

Pansy Metal / Clovered Hoof, 1989

Sale Date: September 21, 2022

Auction Closed

Untitled (Bowling Ball, Bag and Shirt), 1991

Mike Kelley

Untitled (Bowling Ball, Bag and Shirt), 1991

Sale Date: August 17, 2022

Auction Closed

Blood & Soil (Potato Print), 1989

Mike Kelley

Blood & Soil (Potato Print), 1989

Sale Date: July 14, 2022

Auction Closed

The Pointing Hand from The Poetry of Form:..., 1985

Mike Kelley

The Pointing Hand from The Poetry of Form:..., 1985

Sale Date: July 16, 2022

Auction Closed

Poetics Country (S. p. 414), 1997

Mike Kelley and Tony Oursler

Poetics Country (S. p. 414), 1997

Sale Date: June 25, 2022

Auction Closed

Untitled (Bowling Ball, Bag and Shirt), 1991

Mike Kelley

Untitled (Bowling Ball, Bag and Shirt), 1991

Sale Date: June 15, 2022

Auction Closed

The Orange & Green; Emerald Eyehole; and..., 1989

Mike Kelley

The Orange & Green; Emerald Eyehole; and..., 1989

Sale Date: June 15, 2022

Auction Closed

Poetics Country, 1997

Mike Kelley and Tony Oursler

Poetics Country, 1997

Sale Date: June 11, 2022

Auction Closed

Master Dik, from Pansy Metal / Clovered Hoof, 1989

Mike Kelley

Master Dik, from Pansy Metal / Clovered Hoof, 1989

Sale Date: April 21, 2022

Auction Closed

Country Cousin, from Pansy Metal / Clovered..., 1989

Mike Kelley

Country Cousin, from Pansy Metal / Clovered..., 1989

Sale Date: April 21, 2022

Auction Closed

Holiday Lingham Paperweight, 2002

Mike Kelley

Holiday Lingham Paperweight, 2002

Sale Date: March 9, 2022

Auction Closed

Neo-Romantic, 2006

Mike Kelley

Neo-Romantic, 2006

Sale Date: March 9, 2022

Auction Closed

Rock Critic I, 1991

Mike Kelley

Rock Critic I, 1991

Sale Date: December 15, 2021

Auction Closed

Little Friend, 2007

Mike Kelley

Little Friend, 2007

Sale Date: December 16, 2021

Auction Closed

Sans titre

Mike Kelley

Sale Date: December 3, 2021

Auction Closed

White or Yellow, 1997

Mike Kelley

White or Yellow, 1997

Sale Date: December 8, 2021

Auction Closed

KELLEY, MIKE. Reconstructed History., 1990

Mike Kelley

KELLEY, MIKE. Reconstructed History., 1990

Sale Date: November 9, 2021

Auction Closed

Memory Ware Flat #3, 2000

Mike Kelley

Memory Ware Flat #3, 2000

Sale Date: November 17, 2021

Auction Closed

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