Installation view of 'Mike Kelley' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, March 31-July 28, 2014. | Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Installation view of 'Mike Kelley' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, March 31-July 28, 2014. | Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Installation view of 'Mike Kelley' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, March 31-July 28, 2014. | Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Installation view of 'Mike Kelley' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, March 31-July 28, 2014. | Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Installation view of 'Mike Kelley' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, March 31-July 28, 2014. | Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Installation view of 'Mike Kelley' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, March 31-July 28, 2014. | Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Installation view of 'Mike Kelley' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, March 31-July 28, 2014. | Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Installation view of 'Mike Kelley' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, March 31-July 28, 2014. | Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Installation view of 'Mike Kelley' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, March 31-July 28, 2014. | Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Installation view of 'Mike Kelley' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, March 31-July 28, 2014. | Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Mike Kelley, 'From My Institution to Yours,' installation view, 194 in x 186 3/8 in x 123 1/2 in, 1987/2003. | Collection Eric Decelle, Brussels. Photo: courtesy Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.
Mike Kelley, 'Dancing the Quadrille (from the Reconstructed History Series),' gelatin silver print, 8 in x 10 in, 1989. | Eileen and Michael Cohen Collection. Photo courtesy Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.
Mike Kelley, 'Animal Self' and 'Friend of the Animals,' glued felt, 2 parts, 96 in x 72 in; 94.75 in x 67.75 in, 1987. | The Schyl Collection, Malmö Kontshall. Photo: Helene Toresdotter, courtesy Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.
Mike Kelley, 'Janitorial Banner,' glued felt, wood, 49 in x 17 in x 2 in, 1984. | Collection of Joel Wachs. Photo: Courtesy Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.
Mike Kelley, 'Rainbow Coalition,' acrylic on unstretched canvas, 102 3/4 in x 88 3/4 in, 1985. | Courtesy David Zwirner. Photo: courtesy Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.
Mike Kelley, 'Estral Star #3,' tied, found stuffed cloth animals, 23 in x 10 1/2 in x 5 in, 1989. | Collection Ringier AG. Photo courtesy Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.
Mike Kelley, 'Silver Ball,' aluminum foil, polyurethane foam, wood, chicken wire, speakers, four boomboxes, three baskets, and artificial fruit, ball: 57 7/8 in x 57 7/8 in x 53 1/8 in, blanket area: 13 in x 46 7/8 in x 81 7/8 in, 1994. | The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, partial and promised gift of Blake Byrne. Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.
Mike Kelley, 'Pay For Your Pleasure,' installation view, dimensions variable,1988. | Gift of Timothy P. and Suzette L. Flood. Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.
After opening in Amsterdam and making stops in Paris and New York, the retrospective of the late artist, CalArts alumnus and former faculty member Mike Kelley (Art MFA 78) comes to the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Kelley’s adopted home of Los Angeles. The retrospective, which opened on March 31 and gathers more than 250 objects, is the largest exhibition of the influential and prolific artist’s work to date.
In KCRW’s Art Talk, host Hunter Drohojowska-Philp remarks on the scope of the exhibit, which not only fills the Geffen Contemporary, but also a separate gallery in MOCA Grand Avenue:
Kelley’s work resonates much more comprehensibly as a gesamtkunstwerk, a totality of rather astonishing consistency ranging from his earliest bird house sculptures and performance artifacts of the late 1970s, still a graduate student at CalArts, to the terrifying beauty of the Kandors, small city models of the birthplace of Superman contained within glass bell jars attached by hoses to tanks of oxygen.
Above are photos of some of the works exhibited, as well as the installation as it stands in the Geffen Contemporary. Mike Kelley is on view until July 28.
Event Details
Mike Kelley
March 31 through July 28
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA 152 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles
Tickets: $12 general admission, $7 students
