Mike Kelley: Ghost and spirit is the first retrospective in Scandinavia of the pioneering American artist Mike Kelley. The exhibition Ghost and spirit spans his entire oeuvre – from his groundbreaking performance works of the early 1970s to his provocative multimedia installations of the early 2000s.

The works of Mike Kelley (1954–2012) probes the core of the human experience. As a late 20th-century heir to Pop Art, he examined the structures and contradictions of 1980s and 1990s American culture in groundbreaking works that expose, interrogate and provoke.

He came to art through his involvement in anarchist political movements and experimental music scenes – he was a founding member of the proto-punk Detroit band Destroy All Monsters and a collaborator of the noise rock band Sonic Youth.

Mike Kelley did not shy away from social taboos and stereotypes. Rather, he embraced them to interrogate what he considered the mythologies of his time.

(Hendrik Folkerts, curator of the exhibition)