In Conversation: Grace Ndiritu and Tanya Barson on Mike Kelley

Join us for a conversation with artist Grace Ndiritu and Hauser & Wirth’s Curatorial Senior Director Tanya Barson in celebration of the exhibition ‘Mike Kelley. Vice Anglais’ at Hauser & Wirth London.

Our exhibition will run concurrently with the major survey ‘Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit’ at Tate Modern in London, UK, on view until Sunday 9 March 2025. Grace Ndiritu’s ‘Grief: A Love Letter to Mike’ (2023) was commissioned by Tate Publishing for the exhibition, which is a love letter written to Mike Kelley, one of her favorite artists.

Please note that the talk will start promptly at 5 pm. Tickets are free, however advance booking is essential and late arrivals will not be admitted. Seats will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

Following the conversation, we invite you to attend the opening reception of the exhibition from 6 – 8 pm.

About Grace Ndiritu
Grace Ndiritu is a British-Kenyan (Maasai Kikuyu) visual artist, filmmaker and writer, whose artworks are concerned with the transformation of our contemporary world. Her films and videos, textiles, photography, performances, paintings and architectural spaces have been widely exhibited, most recently, in her mid-career survey entitled ‘Healing The Museum,’ S.M.A.K. Ghent, Belgium (2023). Ndiritu is a recipient of the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Foundation Visual Arts Award (2024) and the winner of the Jarman Award in association with Film London (2022).

Her selected solo exhibitions include: Kate MacGarry, London, UK (2023); Fotomuseum, Antwerp, Belgium (2023); Wellcome Collection, London, UK (2023); FlatTime House, London, UK (2022); Kunsthal Gent, Belgium (2021); and Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK (2019). Her recent performances and screenings include: RAMM, Exeter, UK (2022); Bozar, Brussels, Belgium (2021); and Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, France (2021). Her work is also housed in museum collections such as: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York NY); LACMA (Los Angeles CA); Migros Museum of Contemporary Art (Zurich, Switzerland); Foto Museum (Antwerp, Belgium); The Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw, Poland); The British Council and Arts Council England.

Ndiritu’s work has been featured in Artforum, Art Review, The Guardian, TIME Magazine, The Financial Times, Elephant, BOMB, Mousse, Art Monthly, Metropolis M, ‘Phaidon: The 21st Century Art Book,’ Apollo Magazine‘s ‘40 under 40‘ list, and BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.

About Tanya Barson
Tanya Barson has been Curatorial Senior Director at Hauser & Wirth since 2021. Among selected recent projects, she curated the exhibitions ‘Surreal Legacies,’ Hauser & Wirth, Monaco (2024 – 2025); ‘Larry Bell: Works from the 1970s,’ Hauser & Wirth, Monaco (2024); ‘Exemplary Modern: Sophie Taeuber-Arp with Contemporary Artists,’ Hauser & Wirth 69th Street, New York (2023); ‘The Mother & the Weaver: Art from the Ursula Hauser Collection,’ at The Foundling Museum, London (2023); and ‘Bodily Abstractions/Fragmented Anatomies,’ Hauser & Wirth Monaco, (2022).

Barson was previously Chief Curator at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain (2016 –2021); Curator of International Art, Tate Modern, London, UK (2007 – 2016); Exhibitions and Collections Curator, Tate Liverpool, UK (2004 – 2007); and Assistant Curator, Tate, Millbank, UK (1997 – 2004). She has curated major exhibitions of Felix Gonzalez-Torres (2021); Christian Marclay (2019), Melanie Smith (2018), Rosemarie Castoro (2017); Georgia O’Keeffe (2016); Mira Schendel (2013); ‘Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic,’ (2010), Ellen Gallagher (2007), ‘Making History: Art and Documentary in Britain from 1929 to Now,’ (2005); and Frida Kahlo (2005). In addition, she is a specialist in Latin American modernism and contemporary art, having often written and lectured about the subject.

About ‘Mike Kelley. Vice Anglais’
Over the course of his four decade career, Mike Kelley (1954 – 2012) addressed the relation of establishment culture to counterculture. He shed light on social rituals and subcultures, whilst simultaneously parodying the imposition of institutionalized power and instruction.

With his Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction (EAPR) series (2000 – 2011), Mike Kelley set out to make 365 videos and video installations, one for each day of the year, which came to an early end with ‘Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #36 (Vice Anglais)’ (2011), one of the last videos he ever made. The exhibition in the South Gallery focuses on this final EAPR through related works, including a series of never-before exhibited paintings of the cast of transgressive characters in ‘Vice Anglais,’ a lightbox still of a scene from this EAPR and sculptures made using props from his videos. A special screening of the video will be held during the exhibition run.

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Photographs will be taken at this event for use on the Hauser & Wirth website, social media and in other marketing materials.