Mike Kelley’s expansive practice drew deeply from the mundane artifacts of everyday life, which he transformed into darkly imaginative multimedia works. Blurring the boundaries between high and low culture, his art delved into themes of memory, trauma, and cultural ritual. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, film, performance, and installation, Kelley created a body of work that is both intellectually provocative and visually arresting.One of his most renowned projects, Day is Done (2005), is an ambitious multimedia installation that reimagines American adolescence through surreal reconstructions of high school yearbook photographs. In his Kandors series (1999–2011), Kelley rendered the fictional Kryptonian city from Superman lore in glowing colored resins, enclosing them in glass vessels to evoke eerie, reliquary-like artifacts.Beyond the visual arts, Kelley was active in the experimental music scene—collaborating with Sonic Youth and co-founding the proto-punk band Destroy All Monsters. His work has commanded seven-figure prices at auction and is held in major institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, Centre Pompidou, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Mike Kelley

American

Main

Artist

Printer

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