New works inspired by artist Mike Kelley will be on view from October 21 - November 11, 2021

A Hug From The Art World is thrilled to present Memory Ware Flats, the third solo exhibition in

collaboration with artist Eric Doeringer. Doeringer’s Memory Ware Flats are inspired by a

series of works created by artist Mike Kelley between 2000 and 2010. For this series, Kelley

adopted the technique of memory ware, a folk art in which household items (usually plates,

pitchers, or other kitchenware) are covered with small personal items like keys, buttons, and

earrings. Kelley used this technique to create large wall works he titled Memory Ware Flats as

well as freestanding sculpture.

Doeringer’s Memory Ware Flats add a second layer of appropriation to Kelley’s original reuse of

a folk art genre. The three works in the exhibition mimic the scale, color schemes, and

presentation of three specific Memory Ware Flats by Mike Kelley. However, Doeringer has made

no attempt to match the actual items or layouts of the originals (other than the general

Pollock-esque “all over” compositions). This muddles the question of whether these works are

“copies” of Mike Kelley’s artworks, “original” works by Doeringer, or whether both artists are

“copying” the work of anonymous artisans.

Ralph Rugoff writes, “The Memory Ware Flats in particular appear to emphasize decorative

surface effects and to maintain a content-neutral demeanor. But the borrowed aesthetic Kelley

deployed in the series is best understood as part of a labyrinth in which intricate paths of ideas

and allusions intersect and circle back upon one another… Kelley’s Memory Ware project can

also be understood as an extended chapter in the artist’s long engagement with reusing,

repurposing, and re-contextualizing materials and ideas, including those associated with his

own earlier production.” Doeringer’s work continues and expands upon this interest in the ways

that artists can construct alternate histories and how existing objects can be imbued with new

meanings by being placed into new contexts.

“In the age of post connoisseurship, the aura of the ‘copy’ in Doeringer’s case has the potential

to be more authentic than the original,” says A Hug From The Art World CEO Adam Cohen.

Memory Ware Flats opens on October 21, 2021 and will be on display until November 11, 2021.