Hauser and Wirth to Represent Mike Kelley Foundation

Mike Kelley, Mobile Homestead. Photo: courtesy the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Swiss mega-gallery Hauser and Wirth has been tapped to represent the Mike Kelley Foundation worldwide, the gallery and foundation jointly announced on Friday. Kelley established the foundation in 2007, five years before his untimely death in 2012 at the age of 57.

In a statement, the foundation says that the full extent of the collaboration is still forthcoming, but that in the mean time the gallery will serve to “further advance the legacy of Mike Kelley through exhibitions and public programs at its gallery spaces internationally, as well as through development of new publications and research on the artist’s work, and the sale of artworks.”

Until now, the foundation has mainly served to distribute grants to artists and other creative actors across the media in which Kelley worked. After Kelley’s apparent suicide at his South Pasadena home, which deeply shocked the art world, the foundation took on the larger role of caring for his legacy and estate.

A giant among artists, Kelley came to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s with solo exhibitions at major institutions across the US. For 20 years he was represented by Metro Pictures until switching to Gagosian in the early aughts. Thus, it’s notable that the foundation chose Hauser and Wirth to take on the long term management of Kelley’s foundation and estate.


Follow Artnet News on Facebook:


Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.
Article topics