Critic Holland Cotter on Kelley: “A certain tone or attitude remained constant, too. The shorthand term for it is abjection, a deliberate immersion in the gross-out anarchy associated with youth culture. But to see only that was to miss the deep and covered-up strain of poetry in his work, evident in a series of sculptural pieces using children’s stuffed animals sewn onto or covered over with hand-knitted afghans.” [NYT]
Critic Jonathan Jones: “The sprawl and epic clutter of Kelley’s vision matched Los Angeles itself: perhaps the right word for his art is LA baroque, for, just as artists in 17th-century Italy gave the corrupt Rome of the popes an art to match its power, so did Kelley give LA a mirror big and black enough to do it justice.” [The Guardian]
A makeshift memorial to Kelley has sprung up in L.A. [Vice]
MOCA curator Paul Schimmel, quoted by Jori Finkel: “L.A. would not have become a great international capital of contemporary art without Mike Kelley.” [LAT]
Tyler Green: “Mike Kelley was at the top of his powers.” [MAN]
Charlie Finch: “It’s no exaggeration to say, despite the recent popularity in Los Angeles-based exhibitions of all the Finish Fetish and Light and Space artists, that Mike Kelley remained the cynosure of everything that was art in Los Angeles.” [Artnet]
Gallerist Helene Winer, quoted by Katya Kazakina: “[He] broke down the distinctions between different forms of art. He was very intense, had a lot of energy, was extremely serious and very productive.” [Bloomberg]
Gallerist‘s report of Kelley’s passing. [Gallerist]
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People are still shouting about Christo’s latest project. [NYT]
Tintoretto, among other artists, flagged for restoration by Bank of America. [The Independent]
Here’s an artist who literally throws herself at men. [Slate]
