Widely acknowledged as an artist who defined his era, Mike Kelley (1954–2012) created a stunning and protean legacy that encompasses painting, sculpture, works on paper, installation, performance, music, video, photography, collaborative works and critical texts. In the largest exhibition of his work ever organized—and the first comprehensive survey attempted since 1993—the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presentation of Mike Kelley brings together over 200 works, spanning the artist’s 35-year career.

Organized chronologically for the most part, Mike Kelley fills virtually all of the 1792-square-meter (19.289-square-foot) temporary exhibition space in the new building of the expanded Stedelijk Museum. The exhibition will constitute an overview of the artist’s work from the mid-1970s until shortly before his death, allowing visitors to understand and appreciate the full scope of his achievements.

“Mike Kelley's brilliance was rooted in his ability to dig critically into a world of cultural productions, representations, and constructions in all their messy contradictions, using a combination of incisive wit, poetic insight and uncanny associative power,” Ann Goldstein commented. “Nothing is sacrosanct in his work—not so-called high culture, history, literature, music, philosophy, psychology, religion or education. In bringing together his interest in so-called low culture—from crafts to comic strips—with a reconsideration of identity and sexuality, he was nothing less than revelatory.”

Music by Mike Kelley: Day is Done - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2005)
Photo: Mike Kelley (Wayne, MI (US), 1954 - South Pasadena, CA (US), 2012): Banana Man Costume (1981), Lifesize Courtesy Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts

Met dank aan / Thanks to: Mike Kelley Foundation, Claire van Els, Rixt Hulshoff Pol, Dorine van Kampen
Interviews & research: Fieke Tissink, Eline Timmer
Camera & editing: Maaike Sips

Production: Bobcat Media (c) 2012