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The Art World in Focus
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Mike Kelley

MIKE KELLEY

Subharmonic Tangerine Abyss Hauser & Wirth 27 October 2022–25 February 2023 Hong Kong, 80 Queen's
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Press Release

Widely considered one of the most ambitious and influential artists of our time, Mike Kelley often drew from a wide spectrum of high and low culture, mining the banal objects of everyday life to question and dismantle Western conceptions of contemporary art and culture. Beginning 27 October 2022, Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong is proud to present the late Los Angeles-based artist’s first solo exhibition in the Greater China: ‘Mike Kelley: S__ubharmonic Tangerine Abyss.’ Organised in collaboration with the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, the exhibition focuses on one of Kelley’s most significant later series, Kandors. Initiated by Kelley in 1999, the Kandors series comprises of Superman’s birthplace, the city of Kandor. Kandor served as Kelley’s inspiration for a twelve-year long project and meditation on themes of cultural memory, passing time, and visions of utopia. In addition to the visually opulent and technically ambitious sculptures and lenticulars that Kelley’s Kandors series is known for, this exhibition will feature three distinct kinds of videos that Kelley included in his original Kandors show at Jablonka Gallery in 2007.

Over the course of a career spanning four decades, Mike Kelley (b.1954-2012) developed a substantial body of work which encompassed drawing, painting, sculpture, video, performance, music and critical writing. Born in Detroit, the artist studied at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor from 1973, before relocating to Los Angeles in 1976 to enrol in an MFA programme at the California Institute of the Arts. A response to the prevailing modernist aesthetic he encountered during the course of his instruction at the University of Michigan, Kelley often appropriated imagery from low-end vernacular and counterculture, taking inspiration from local comic books and artists, erotica, pulp fiction and advertising.

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About the Artist

Mike Kelley is widely considered one of the most influential artists of our time. Originally from a suburb outside of Detroit, Kelley attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, before moving to Southern California in 1976 to study at California Institute of the Arts from which he received an MFA in 1978. The city of Los Angeles became his adopted home and the site of his prolific art practice. In much of his work, Kelley drew from a wide spectrum of high and low culture, and was known to scour flea markets for America’s cast-offs and leftovers. Mining the banal objects of everyday life, Kelley elevated these materials to question and dismantle Western conceptions of contemporary art and culture.

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About the Gallery

Hauser & Wirth was founded in 1992 in Zurich by Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Ursula Hauser, who were joined in 2000 by Partner and Vice President Marc Payot. A family business with a global outlook, Hauser & Wirth has expanded over the past 26 years to include outposts in Hong Kong, London, New York, Los Angeles, Somerset and Gstaad. The gallery represents over 70 artists and estates who have been instrumental in shaping its identity over the past quarter century, and who are the inspiration for Hauser & Wirth’s diverse range of activities that engage with art, education, conservation and sustainability.

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Address
15-16/F, H Queen's
80 Queen's Road Central
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Opening Hours
Tues - Sat, 11am - 7pm
(1)
Hong Kong 15-16/F, H Queen's, 80 Queen's Road Central
Hauser Wirth contemporary art gallery in Hong Kong 80 Queens
Hauser & Wirth
15-16/F, H Queen's, 80 Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
+852 395 871 88
http://www.hauserwirth.com

Opening hours
Tues - Sat, 11am - 7pm
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