Mingering Mike (born 1950) is a fictitious funk and soul recording and visual artist created in the late 1960s as the subject of works of album art by a young Mike Stevens. More recently, Mingering Mike was rediscovered by
law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...
investigator
Investigator may refer to:
Occupations Government and law
* Detective, a person who investigates crimes, can be a rank and job in a police department, state or federal employee, or a civilian called a private detective
* Inspector, a police rank ...
Dori Hadar
and his friend Frank Beylotte, who came across the art work at a
flea market
A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously-owned (second-hand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' ...
. Mingering Mike had created a whole complex yet non-existent music career, including a
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that ...
concept album, and had made more than 50
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
covers in ten years. When Mike was rediscovered, it was learned that he had unreleased musical material from the same period. It was eventually released as a real album. Mingering Mike at first refused to release his real name or allow a photo to be taken of him, because he was afraid that his new celebrity status would cause him to lose his two-day jobs.
Mike's original album covers were first exhibited at the
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) is a multimedia contemporary art gallery in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
SECCA has no permanent collection but offers exhibitions of works by artists with regional, national, and international ...
in 2005.
In 2007, Dori Hadar's book about Mike's work, ''The Amazing Career of an Imaginary Soul Superstar'', was published by Princeton Architectural Press.
In 2010, Mike's original record cover work was featured in the exhibition and publication ''The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl'' at the
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
The Nasher Museum of Art (previously the Duke University Museum of Art) is the art museum of Duke University, and is located on Duke's campus in Durham, North Carolina, United States. The Nasher, along with Dartmouth's Hood Museum of Art and ...
.
The
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
in
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
acquired the Mingering Mike Collection in 2012.
References
External links
The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl
Swindle Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mingering Mike
Fictional singers