A pungent commentator on American class, popular culture, and youthful rebellion, Mike Kelley created an ambitious body of work that encompassed virtually every medium, mixing elements of high art and popular culture. Often incorporating found objects, his complex output challenged and criticized systems of belief and identity, particularly within the communities where he lived and worked. Kelley’s Memory Ware series, begun in 2001, ultimately included over 100 two- and three-dimensional works that imitate and subvert a nostalgic, folk art tradition of preserving small, personally meaningful objects in mosaic-like decorations. An example of this in Glenstone’s collection, Memory Ware Flat #27, 2001, is a large-scale, abstract assemblage of thousands of buttons and beads fixed with grout onto a wood panel, including dozens of buttons from political campaigns, their slogans and catchphrases obliterated by an application of pink and metallic spray paint.

–From the Glenstone Field Guide