Mike Kelley

Memory Ware Flat #37

2003
Mixed media on wood panel
81.9 x 56.5 x 9.5 cm / 32 1/4 x 22 1/4 x 3 3/4 in

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Created between 1999 and 2010, Mike Kelley’s series ‘Memory Ware Flats’ pays tribute to the minutiae of everyday life. Drawing inspiration from the Canadian folk art tradition that transforms commonplace objects like bottles, picture frames and ashtrays into vessels of sentimental treasures, Kelley’s works—which he referred to as paintings—breathe fresh life into discarded relics. In ‘Memory Ware Flat #37’ (2003), badges, buttons, pins and mismatched earrings jostle across a psychedelic surface.

This kaleidoscope of objects encourages us to appreciate the seemingly insignificant, the mundane, and the abandoned in a fresh and unconventional light. By doing so, Kelley instigates a quasi-archaeological approach to memory, prompting us to explore the layers of meaning and history hidden within the seemingly trivial objects. In doing so, this work reshapes our perception of art and challenges our understanding of the intricate relationship between objects, memory and the human experience.

On view in Los Angeles

Curated by Jay Ezra Nayssan, ‘Nonmemory’ brings together seminal works by Mike Kelley and a group of seven contemporary artists—Kelly Akashi, Meriem Bennani, Beatriz Cortez, Raúl de Nieves, Olivia Erlanger, Lauren Halsey and Max Hooper Schneider—whose works all play with the role of memory as it posits our perceptions of space and place.

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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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Artwork images © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved/VAGA at ARS, NY. Photo: Sarah Muehlbauer
Installation view, ‘Nonmemory,’ Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles, 2023 © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved/VAGA at ARS, NY. Photo: Keith Lubow
Portrait © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved/VAGA at ARS, NY. Photo: Cameron Wittig