Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit

The work of the American artist Mike Kelley (1954–2012) is astonishing in its variety of themes, mediums and practices. This exhibition at Tate Modern – which has already been to the Bourse de Commerce in Paris and the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf – displays as full a range of his eclectic oeuvre as is possible (3 October–9 March 2025). Banners embroidered with profanities; film works such as The Banana Man (1983), which spawned a famous images of Kelley dressed head-to-toe in yellow; Kandors (1999–2011), a series of fluorescent cityscapes made out of resin; many photographs and sculptures comprising stuffed toys; assorted craft pieces and undefinable objects – all of these make up ‘Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit’, a tribute to an artist who found inspiration in childhood and childlike creativity.

Find out more from Tate Modern’s website.

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Ahh… Youth! (1991; detail), Mike Kelley. © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2024

Installation view of Sublevel (1998) by Mike Kelley at Kustverein Braunschweig in 1999. Photo: Nic Tenwiggenhorn; © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2024

City 13 (AP 1) (2011), Mike Kelley. © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2024. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen

Portrait of Mike Kelley as The Banana Man, taken by Jim McHugh in c. 1983. Photo: © Jim McHugh