Mike Kelley (1954-2012)

02/02/2012

Mike Kelley, Switching Marys, 2004-2005. Verschillende media met videoprojectie, 190,5 x 261,6 x 810,3 cm. Collectie Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery

Artist Mike Kelley has passed away at his home in Los Angeles, having apparently taken his own life. Kelley's studio released a statement saying: "Mike was an irresistible force in contemporary art.... We cannot believe he is gone. But we know his legacy will continue to touch and challenge anyone who crosses its path. We will miss him. We will keep him with us." (LA Times)

Kelley received art world acclaim for his unsettling multimedia work, which combined installation, performance and music and appeared in major galleries around the world including the Whitney in New York and the Louvre. (The Guardian)

Mike Kelley, an Artist With Attitude (NYT)

Paul Schimmel, the chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, called Kelley a "great advocate for artists as well as a great artist," noting his role teaching at the Art Center College of Design.

"L.A. would not have become a great international capital of contemporary art without Mike Kelley," Schimmel said. "Of all the artists in the 1980s, he was the one who really broke out and established a new and complex identity for his generation." (LA Times)

Ann Goldstein, Director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has worked together with Mike Kelley on several exhibitions, also a retrospective exhibition which has been planned as opening show of the museum later this year. She just released this statement:

'We at the Stedelijk Museum today mourn the devastating loss of one of the most extraordinary artists of our time. Mike Kelley's awesome and expansive brilliance, his far-reaching influence, and his generative contributions to the history of art will resonate far into the future. He leaves us all with a remarkable oeuvre but also with the responsibility to honor his tremendous accomplishments. While it has been an exceptional privilege to work closely with Mike on the Stedelijk’s planned retrospective exhibition, guest-curated by Eva Meyer-Hermann, we will not be making any statements regarding plans for this exhibition at the present time.'

Een indruk van zijn verstrekkende invloed blijkt uit de lijst artikelen uit het archief van Metropolis M waarin Mike Kelley genoemd wordt. Met oa een recensie van zijn meest recente grote tentoonstelling in de omgeving van Nederland, Wiels Brussel in 2008.