Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with an exhibition of the work of Mike Kelley presented as a tribute exhibition in collaboration with the LUMA Foundation at The 19th Annual Watermill Center Summer Benefit, Long Island, NY, held July 28 - September 16, 2012. Curated and with text by Harald Falckenberg. Includes exhibition history. Text in English. "Mike Kelley's 'Arenas' series of the late 80s and early 90s mark a shift away from the artist's performance-oriented activity and towards a new sculptural dexterity, in which cultural resonance is elicited from an eerie reframing of everyday objects. First exhibited in 1990 at Metro Pictures, the 'Arenas' are comprised of stuffed animals arranged around the edges of blankets (or occasionally posed isolate in their center). Ten or twenty such toys in such groupings might convey a cheery childhood picnic scenario, but Kelley rarely selects more than five or six, and places them carefully so that their cuddliness and their capacity to comfort is entirely canceled out. Instead, we encounter the toy as a commodity entity-a mass-manufactured product positioned to enter into play but far from inviting it. Skarstedt's exhibition of seven of the eleven 'Arenas' is here recorded in superb installation shots and with critical commentary."—publisher's statement