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)

Poetics Country, 1997

Mike Kelley and Tony Oursler

Poetics Country, 1997

Sale Date: October 21, 2021

Auction Closed

Untitled (Paddle for Artist's Space), 1992

Mike Kelley

Untitled (Paddle for Artist's Space), 1992

Sale Date: October 21, 2021

Auction Closed

Pansy Metal / Clovered Hoof, 1989

Mike Kelley

Pansy Metal / Clovered Hoof, 1989

Sale Date: October 19, 2021

Auction Closed

Ghoul #1, 2005

Mike Kelley

Ghoul #1, 2005

Sale Date: October 14, 2021

Auction Closed

Runway, 1999

Mike Kelley

Sale Date: October 7, 2021

Auction Closed

Test Room Containing Multiple Stimuli Known..., 2001

Mike Kelley

Test Room Containing Multiple Stimuli Known..., 2001

Sale Date: September 2, 2021

Auction Closed

Extracurricular Activity Projective..., 2004–2005

Mike Kelley

Extracurricular Activity Projective..., 2004–2005

Sale Date: July 18, 2021

Auction Closed

One Was Fat, One Was Lean, 2005

Mike Kelley

One Was Fat, One Was Lean, 2005

Sale Date: June 24, 2021

Auction Closed

Extracurricular Activity Projective..., 2004

Mike Kelley

Extracurricular Activity Projective..., 2004

Sale Date: May 27, 2021

Auction Closed

Untitled 1-13 (Dust), 1994–1999

Mike Kelley

Untitled 1-13 (Dust), 1994–1999

Sale Date: May 25, 2021

Auction Closed

Garbage bag IV, 1989

Mike Kelley

Garbage bag IV, 1989

Sale Date: May 25, 2021

Auction Closed

Baby, 1989

Mike Kelley

Sale Date: May 25, 2021

Auction Closed

Panoramic, 1984

Mike Kelley

Panoramic, 1984

Sale Date: May 13, 2021

Auction Closed

Untitled

Mike Kelley

Sale Date: May 13, 2021

Auction Closed

Inner Child, 1999

Mike Kelley

Inner Child, 1999

Sale Date: March 25, 2021

Auction Closed

Lot's Wife. Salted Soap On A Rope, 2007

Mike Kelley

Lot's Wife. Salted Soap On A Rope, 2007

Sale Date: March 14, 2021

Auction Closed

Test Room Containing Multiple Stimuli Known..., 2001

Mike Kelley

Test Room Containing Multiple Stimuli Known..., 2001

Sale Date: March 24, 2021

Auction Closed

Paddle for Artist's Space, 1992

Mike Kelley

Paddle for Artist's Space, 1992

Sale Date: February 17, 2021

Auction Closed

Garbage Drawing #32, 1988

Mike Kelley

Garbage Drawing #32, 1988

Sale Date: December 8, 2020

Auction Closed

City 5, 2007

Mike Kelley

Sale Date: December 8, 2020

Auction Closed

Hermaphrodite, 1974

Mike Kelley

Hermaphrodite, 1974

Sale Date: December 11, 2020

Auction Closed

Ka – rumba, 1975

Mike Kelley

Ka – rumba, 1975

Sale Date: December 11, 2020

Auction Closed

La Femme Fatale, from Monkey Island, 1982

Mike Kelley

La Femme Fatale, from Monkey Island, 1982

Sale Date: November 19, 2020

Auction Closed

Missing Time Color Exercise #4, 1998

Mike Kelley

Missing Time Color Exercise #4, 1998

Sale Date: October 23, 2020

Auction Closed

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