Widely acknowledged as an artist who defined his era, Mike Kelley (1954–2012) created a stunning and protean legacy that encompasses painting, sculpture, works on paper, installation, performance, music, video, photography, collaborative works and critical texts. In the largest exhibition of his work ever organized—and the first comprehensive survey attempted since 1993—the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presentation of Mike Kelley will bring together over 200 works, spanning the artist’s 35-year career. The exhibition will subsequently travel to the Centre Pompidou, Paris, MoMA PS1, New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The retrospective will be on view December 15 to April 1, 2013, at the Stedelijk Museum, Museumplein 10, 1071 DJ Amsterdam, Netherlands

Jewelry designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia teams up with filmmaker and illustrator Quentin Jones to feature his new collection by his label House of Waris. Above is part 2 of the video collaboration and a part three is said to be coming soon.

Marianne Boesky Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings and graphite drawings by Barnaby Furnas (b.1973, Philadelphia, PA). This will be the artist’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery. In this new series of paintings, loosely titled If Wishes Were Fishes, Furnas again tackles epic historic and religious iconography, this time drawing from both the lore of Melville’s Moby Dick, as well as Jonah’s flight from God that lands him in the belly of the whale. On this Furnas says, “What interested me about whaling in the first place was that they (the whales) gave us light – their fat allowed us to bring God’s light into the darkness of the night so we could see our fingers and maybe read after the sun went down.” If Wishes Were Fishes will be on view until December 21, 2012 at Marianne Boesky Gallery, 509 West 24th Street New York, NY.

Photographer Mike Brodie, working under the moniker, The Polaroid Kidd, spent four years traveling the U.S. amassing a large body of work and an extremely unique view of the American lanscape – oft from the perceptive of boxcars and train tracks shared by runaways and disenfranchised youth. Unexpectedly, Brodie quit the medium entirely to become a car mechanic in the Bay Area. Twin Palms publishers will be releasing a critical monograph of his work entitled A Period of Juvenile Prosperity this month. Brodie will also be having numerous gallery shows. photograph by Austin McManus

An exhibition, called That’s Me – That’s Not Me, of Cindy Sherman’s first photographs is will be on view at the  Centre de la Photographie in Geneva until January 13, 2013. photograph by Christian Redtenbacher

French jewelry, object, accessory designer and mystic Aoi Kotsuhiroi, who releases some sort of narrative to accompany each of her new collections, has released the dark and nostalgic, gothic poem called Nothing But Words To Learn To Lie for her current collection of one off objects which have been created entirely by hand, including the sewing. Objects include jackets and corsets made from Bison leather, heels painted with 15 layers of black and red paint and then lacquered with genuine cinnabar Urushi lacquer (tree sap), a human skull wrapped in bison leather, a chestnut wood chair upholstered with bison leather and hand-sewn with waxed linen thread, and a dildo made of Urushi lacquered fagus sylvatica wood that comes in a bison leather pouch. Visit Aoi Kotsuhiroi’s website to read the poem and inquire about purchasing these remarkable objects.

Check out Paola Pivi’s surreal image of zebras on a snow-covered mountaintop on High Line Billboard at West 18th Street as part of the artist series, on view until January 2, 2013. One of Italy’s most eccentric artists, Paola Pivi has built her artistic practice on absurd projects and apparently impossible ventures carried out with the serious devotion of a scientist and the creative freedom of an unstoppable explorer.

The ninth issue of the hardscrabble No Thoughts Zine pays tribute to music. With Gavin Thomas’ covershot of Jim Jones and portraits of Janelle Monae and Yelawolf, celebrated fashion photographer Jimmy Fontaine’s energetic images of hardcore act Tear It Up, Brad Elterman’s photos of Joey Ramone and Phil Spector, Pete Doherty shot by Ulrike Biets and more. You can pick No Thoughts’ music issue up here. 

photograph by Michael Barrie

photograph by Terry Richardson