Mike Kelley returns to show at his hometown with his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles in about eight years and his first with Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills. For Southern California’s patient art lovers, it was well worth the wait. Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #34 Kandor 12 / Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #35 features 17 works of large-scale sculpture, video, and installation. It is completely immersive, spectacularly executed, and is everything that great art should be.
The show centers on models of Kandor, which is Superman’s birth city. It was shrunken to miniature size by Brainiac and preserved by Superman through the pumping of artificial atmosphere. Each Kandor is a metaphor for our own lives and world(s) today. The exploration of themes Kelley is known for, including nostalgia, memory, and repression are throughout this show. Central to this is an installation in which a life-size Colonel Sanders pulls back a drape to reveal a case that houses a tiny figure of psychoanalyst Freud. Kelley continues to merge high and low culture, including found objects from a typical childhood or workplace or marketplace.
If you are in the area any time before the show closes Feb 19, attendance and viewing of this show in person is mandatory. Check out more images after the jump…
