Mike Kelley: Horizontal Tracking Shots, 555 West 24th Street, New York, November 7–December 23, 2009

Installation Views

Mike Kelley: Horizontal Tracking Shots. Installation view — Mike Kelley: Horizontal Tracking Shots
Installation view

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley: Horizontal Tracking Shots. Installation view

Works Exhibited

Mike Kelley, Naked Majas (Bettelheims' Genital), 2008–09. Acrylic on canvas, wood, enamel, 70 ½ × 192 × 4 ½ inches (179.1 × 487.7 × 11.4 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Naked Majas (Bettelheims' Genital)*, 2008–09
Acrylic on canvas, wood, enamel, 70 ½ × 192 × 4 ½ inches (179.1 × 487.7 × 11.4 cm)

Mike Kelley, Horizontal Tracking Shot of a Cross Section of Trauma Rooms, 2009. Acrylic on wood panels, steel video monitors, DVD players, 96 × 192 × 1 ¾ inches (243.8 × 487.7 × 4.4 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Horizontal Tracking Shot of a Cross Section of Trauma Rooms*, 2009
Acrylic on wood panels, steel video monitors, DVD players, 96 × 192 × 1 ¾ inches (243.8 × 487.7 × 4.4 cm)

Mike Kelley, Untitled 5, 2008–09. Acrylic on wood panels, 103 × 215 inches overall (261.6 × 546.1 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Untitled 5*, 2008–09
Acrylic on wood panels, 103 × 215 inches overall (261.6 × 546.1 cm)

Mike Kelley, The Death of the West, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 33 ½ × 27 ½ inches (85.1 × 69.8 cm) — Mike Kelley
*The Death of the West*, 2009
Acrylic on canvas, 33 ½ × 27 ½ inches (85.1 × 69.8 cm)

Mike Kelley, Untitled 4, 2008–09. Acrylic on wood panels, 102 × 116 inches (259.1 × 294.6 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Untitled 4*, 2008–09
Acrylic on wood panels, 102 × 116 inches (259.1 × 294.6 cm)

Mike Kelley, Dark Swallower of Souls, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 22 ¾ × 29 inches (57.8 × 73.7 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Dark Swallower of Souls*, 2009
Acrylic on canvas, 22 ¾ × 29 inches (57.8 × 73.7 cm)

Mike Kelley, Twin Henrys, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 26 ¼ × 38 ¼ inches (66.7 × 97.2 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Twin Henrys*, 2009
Acrylic on canvas, 26 ¼ × 38 ¼ inches (66.7 × 97.2 cm)

Mike Kelley, Mort's Mouth, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 41 × 29 ¼ inches (104.1 × 74.3 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Mort's Mouth*, 2009
Acrylic on canvas, 41 × 29 ¼ inches (104.1 × 74.3 cm)

Mike Kelley, Fuck Me - I'm Irish, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 33 ¼ × 27 ¼ inches (84.5 × 69.2 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Fuck Me - I'm Irish*, 2009
Acrylic on canvas, 33 ¼ × 27 ¼ inches (84.5 × 69.2 cm)

Mike Kelley, Untitled, 2008–09. Acrylic on wood panels, 94 × 131 ¼ inches (238.8 × 333.4 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Untitled*, 2008–09
Acrylic on wood panels, 94 × 131 ¼ inches (238.8 × 333.4 cm)

Mike Kelley, Untitled, 2008–09. Acrylic on wood panels, 99 × 179 ¼ inches (251.5 × 455.3 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Untitled*, 2008–09
Acrylic on wood panels, 99 × 179 ¼ inches (251.5 × 455.3 cm)

Mike Kelley, Untitled, 2008–08. Acrylic on wood panels, 100 × 184 ¼ inches (254 × 468 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Untitled*, 2008–08
Acrylic on wood panels, 100 × 184 ¼ inches (254 × 468 cm)

Mike Kelley, Lobed, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 4 parts: 97 × 22 inches overall (246.4 × 55.9 cm) — Mike Kelley
*Lobed*, 2009
Acrylic on canvas, 4 parts: 97 × 22 inches overall (246.4 × 55.9 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Naked Majas (Bettelheims' Genital), 2008–09. Acrylic on canvas, wood, enamel, 70 ½ × 192 × 4 ½ inches (179.1 × 487.7 × 11.4 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Horizontal Tracking Shot of a Cross Section of Trauma Rooms, 2009. Acrylic on wood panels, steel video monitors, DVD players, 96 × 192 × 1 ¾ inches (243.8 × 487.7 × 4.4 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Untitled 5, 2008–09. Acrylic on wood panels, 103 × 215 inches overall (261.6 × 546.1 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, The Death of the West, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 33 ½ × 27 ½ inches (85.1 × 69.8 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Untitled 4, 2008–09. Acrylic on wood panels, 102 × 116 inches (259.1 × 294.6 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Dark Swallower of Souls, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 22 ¾ × 29 inches (57.8 × 73.7 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Twin Henrys, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 26 ¼ × 38 ¼ inches (66.7 × 97.2 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Mort's Mouth, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 41 × 29 ¼ inches (104.1 × 74.3 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Fuck Me - I'm Irish, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 33 ¼ × 27 ¼ inches (84.5 × 69.2 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Untitled, 2008–09. Acrylic on wood panels, 94 × 131 ¼ inches (238.8 × 333.4 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Untitled, 2008–09. Acrylic on wood panels, 99 × 179 ¼ inches (251.5 × 455.3 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Untitled, 2008–08. Acrylic on wood panels, 100 × 184 ¼ inches (254 × 468 cm)

Thumbnail - Mike Kelley, Lobed, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 4 parts: 97 × 22 inches overall (246.4 × 55.9 cm)

About

This body of work grew out of the Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction series, like Day is Done and A Domestic Scene, where I treated stage sets as paintings. Stage sets, like paintings, are designed to be seen frontally.
—Mike Kelley

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present Mike Kelley's "Horizontal Tracking Shots," his first show in New York devoted entirely to painting.

Evoking painting as a series of experiences akin to the movie camera gliding through space, capturing action as it goes, Kelley has devised a spatial push-pull effect through the arrangement of large polychrome panel paintings and smaller framed canvases. In the untitled colored reliefs, individual colors pop or recede in relation to each other. The colors of the flat support panels are determined by key colors in the organically shaped panels that are attached to them.

The colored reliefs, which evoke Modernist monochromes as well as domestic décor, have base moldings that give them an architectural quality, linking them to stage sets or theatrical space whereas the small framed paintings on canvas, hung individually or in tight clusters, operate like windows in the gallery walls, punctuating the spatial parameters set up by the larger panel paintings. In these smaller works with titles such as Mort's Mouth (2008-2009) and Twin Henrys (2008-2009), Kelley draws freely from a wide range of sources including elementary school textbook illustration, New Age painting, comic strips, and science-fiction.

Artist

Mike Kelley

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Press release (pdf)

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