Starting Saturday, June 16, 2012, Wako Works of Art is very pleased to present a screening of a selection of seminal video work by Mike Kelley.

This video screening will present works that have rarely been shown in Japan. The Banana Man (1983), his only solo video work, Kappa (1986), made in collaboration with Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, and Superman Recites Selections from 'The Bell Jar' and Other Works by Sylvia Plath (1999) will be shown in large projection. Also on view will be videos from his Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction series, Day is Done (#2-32) and Judson Church Horse Dance and The Offer (#33). Based on high school yearbook photographs that Kelley found and for which he reconstructed scenarios, Day is Done videos were originally presented as part of large-scale video and sculptural installations: 32 of such videos will be shown. A Voyage of Growth and Discovery with Michael Smith and 10:30PM, August 14, 2008, a recording of a performance with Paul McCarthy and Masaya Nakahara will be on view as well.

Mike Kelley (1954-2012) was one of the most prolific and influential figures in contemporary art. Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1954, he received his BFA from the University of Michigan and MFA from California Institute of the Arts. The artist's wide-ranging involvement with the various subcultures and preoccupation with the mythical and philosophical, shared and repressed memories, the everydayness and the blue-collar mentality of the American Midwest reflected the expanse of his oeuvre. His work and intricately connected projects extended from drawings to sculptures using stuffed animals, large-scale installations recreating his past educational institutions, to arrangements of his vast collections of knickknacks, to performances (that also ranged from noise music to staged ritualistic theatre productions) and critical writing. His career and collaborations with other artists gained him recognition and following from various genres.

Kelley participated in numerous group shows such as the Whitney Biennials (1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 2002 and 2012), Skulptur Projekte Munster (2007), and more familiarly in the third and fourth Yokohama Triennales (2008 & 2011). He was the subject of solo exhibitions, with Catholic Tastes at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1993), and Haus der Kunst, Munich (1995); Uncanny at the Tate Liverpool (2004); WIELS Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brussels (2008). There will be a large traveling retrospective for Mike Kelley, opening at the Stedelijk Amsterdam in December 2012.