Mike Kelley's "Unwashed Abstraction Nr. 2" is an acrylic on paper work that exemplifies the artist's engagement with abstraction as a deliberate rejection of preciousness and refined aesthetics. The title's reference to "unwashed" suggests an embrace of the crude, unfinished, or non-institutional nature of the work, aligning with Kelley's broader practice of subverting modernist abstraction through a deliberately anti-formal approach. Created during a period when Kelley was interrogating the assumptions underlying abstract art, this piece demonstrates his characteristic method of using gestural, often crude application of paint to undermine the optical purity typically associated with abstraction.