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Mike Kelley & Paul McCarthy

Mike Kelley & Paul McCarthy

Paul McCarthy & Mike Kelley. "Sod & Sodie Sock Comp O.S.O.", 1998. (Image copyright Paul McCarthy and the Estate of Mike Kelley. Courtesy Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts and Paul McCarthy.)

On the occasion of MOCA’s ongoing exhibition Mike Kelley, Los Angeles Filmforum at MOCA hosts an evening exploring the collaborative video and performance work produced by Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy.  McCarthy figured as a key influence for Kelley from early in his career, and the two artists met and began a longtime, recurring collaboration from the mid-’80s onward. 
In this program, Filmforum is honored to host Paul McCarthy in person to present and discuss his work with Kelley, including their epic collaborative project Sod & Sodie Sock Comp O.S.O.
Very gracious thanks to Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts/Mary Clare Stevens (Executive Director) and Paul McCarthy for making this program possible.
For this event, Paul McCarthy will present and discuss multiple projects in which he collaborated with Mike Kelley.  In particular, McCarthy will talk about his and Kelley’s large-scale collaborative performance/installation Sod & Sodie Sock Comp O.S.O. (1998), and screen the rarely seen video, Sod & Sodie Sock (Vienna Cut).  Additional program contents are still being finalized.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of our time, Mike Kelley (1954-2012) produced a body of deeply innovative work mining American popular culture and both modernist and alternative traditions - which he set in relation to relentless self and social examinations, both dark and delirious.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Kelley lived and worked in Los Angeles from the mid-1970s until his death at the age of fifty-seven. Over his thirty-five year career, he worked in every conceivable medium - drawings on paper, sculpture, performance, music, video, photography, and painting - exploring themes as diverse as American class relations, sexuality, repressed memory, systems of religion and transcendence, and post-punk politics, to which he brought both incisive critique and abundant, self-deprecating humor. (partial biography courtesy of MOCA, Los Angeles)
Paul McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1945. After attending the University of Utah, he received his B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, and his M.F.A. from the University of Southern California. In the summer of 2013, McCarthy installed a large-scale, film-and-sculpture environment, “WS,” at the Park Avenue Armory, New York. “WS” ran in conjunction with three solo shows of McCarthy’s work at both Hauser & Wirth locations in New York City. His work has been shown in the 1993 Venice Biennale and Sonsbeek ‘93, Arnheim, and in exhibitions at Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and Musee d’Art Contemporain, Lausanne, Switzerland, among many others. Solo exhibitions of McCarthy’s work have been organized by Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Denmark; Middelheim Sculpture Museum, Antwerp, Belgium; Tate Modern, London; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Hamburg Kunsthalle, Germany; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Air de Paris, Nice; and at major galleries worldwide.  McCarthy lives and works in Los Angeles, California.  (biography courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix)

On the occasion of MOCA’s ongoing exhibition Mike Kelley, Los Angeles Filmforum at MOCA hosts an evening exploring the collaborative video and performance work produced by Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy.  McCarthy figured as a key influence for Kelley from early in his career, and the two artists met and began a longtime, recurring collaboration from the mid-’80s onward. 

In this program, Filmforum is honored to host Paul McCarthy in person to present and discuss his work with Kelley, including their epic collaborative project Sod & Sodie Sock Comp O.S.O.

Very gracious thanks to Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts/Mary Clare Stevens (Executive Director) and Paul McCarthy for making this program possible.

For this event, Paul McCarthy will present and discuss multiple projects in which he collaborated with Mike Kelley.  In particular, McCarthy will talk about his and Kelley’s large-scale collaborative performance/installation Sod & Sodie Sock Comp O.S.O. (1998), and screen the rarely seen video, Sod & Sodie Sock (Vienna Cut).  Additional program contents are still being finalized.

 

Widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of our time, Mike Kelley (1954-2012) produced a body of deeply innovative work mining American popular culture and both modernist and alternative traditions - which he set in relation to relentless self and social examinations, both dark and delirious.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Kelley lived and worked in Los Angeles from the mid-1970s until his death at the age of fifty-seven. Over his thirty-five year career, he worked in every conceivable medium - drawings on paper, sculpture, performance, music, video, photography, and painting - exploring themes as diverse as American class relations, sexuality, repressed memory, systems of religion and transcendence, and post-punk politics, to which he brought both incisive critique and abundant, self-deprecating humor. (partial biography courtesy of MOCA, Los Angeles)

Paul McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1945. After attending the University of Utah, he received his B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, and his M.F.A. from the University of Southern California. In the summer of 2013, McCarthy installed a large-scale, film-and-sculpture environment, “WS,” at the Park Avenue Armory, New York. “WS” ran in conjunction with three solo shows of McCarthy’s work at both Hauser & Wirth locations in New York City. His work has been shown in the 1993 Venice Biennale and Sonsbeek ‘93, Arnheim, and in exhibitions at Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and Musee d’Art Contemporain, Lausanne, Switzerland, among many others. Solo exhibitions of McCarthy’s work have been organized by Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Denmark; Middelheim Sculpture Museum, Antwerp, Belgium; Tate Modern, London; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Hamburg Kunsthalle, Germany; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Air de Paris, Nice; and at major galleries worldwide.  McCarthy lives and works in Los Angeles, California.  (biography courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix)

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Paul McCarthy & Mike Kelley. "Sod & Sodie Sock Comp O.S.O.", 1998. (Image copyright Paul McCarthy and the Estate of Mike Kelley. Courtesy Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts and Paul McCarthy.)

Sod & Sodie Sock Comp O.S.O. (1998)