Kaari Upson

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Kaari Upson
Born(1970-04-22)April 22, 1970
New York Studio School
Alma materCalifornia Institute of the Arts
OccupationArtist
Spouse
Kirk Rudell
​
​
(m. 2000; div. 2010)​
Children1

Kaari Upson (April 22, 1970 – August 18, 2021)

Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston[3][4] and is known for exploring themes of psychoanalysis, obsession, memory, and the body.[5] She had lived and worked in Los Angeles.[6]

Biography

Upson was born in

San Bernardino, California, on April 22, 1970.[1][7] However her date of birth is often listed as 1972, incorrectly.[1] She attended New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture and later attended California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).[1] She received her BFA in 2004 and her MFA in 2007 from CalArts.[1] She began The Larry Project as a student, and exhibited a portion of the work as her MFA thesis.[8][9]

She was married from 2000 until 2010 to television producer Kirk Rudell, together they had one child.[1]

In 2017, she had a large moment in her career when she had two New York City shows; at the Whitney Biennial and at the New Museum.[10] That same year 2017, she was part of the Istanbul Biennial.[10]

After fighting breast cancer for years, Upson died of metastatic breast cancer at New York City's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the evening of August 18, 2021.[11][10]

The Larry Project (2007–2011)

In 2003, after trespassing onto an abandoned property across the street from her parents' home in San Bernardino, Upson discovered boxes of ephemera: letters, legal documents, diaries, photographs, all belonging to one man who she later dubbed 'Larry.'[12][13][8][14][15] She kept the boxes for a year, unsure of what to do with them, but, in 2004, the house mysteriously burnt down, and she decided to begin tracing the life of 'Larry' through her artwork.[8]

For the next seven years, she produced an ongoing body of work, The Larry Project, creating a narrative through the faulty memory of the documents and her own fantasies. The work exists in a variety of mediums: drawing, sculpture, video, and performance.

Gestalt Therapy, and Erhard Seminars Training.[14][16] His hyper-masculine "Ladies' Man" persona became a site of exploration for Upson's own performances of gender, power, and desire.[13]

Untitled (2009), from The Larry Project, at the Rubell Museum DC in 2022

In 2008, Upson made a life-size doll version of 'Larry,' that she enacted different scenes with, switching roles as his daughter, mother, and sexual partner.

Playboy Bunnies and the discovery of her own reflection in a complete stranger.[16][13][12]

Exhibitions

A select list of exhibitions by Upson:

Solo exhibitions

  • 2007: Hammer Projects, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California[2][15]
  • 2009: I am bound to have some anxiety about this so please if I say stop, don't stop, Maccarone, New York City, New York[5]
  • 2011: Kaari Upson, Overduin and Kite, Los Angeles, California
  • 2011: Statements, Art 42, Basel, Switzerland
  • 2012: Baby, Please Come home, Massimo De Carlo, London, Italy
  • 2013: Sleep with the Key, Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
  • 2014: Kaari Upson, Ramiken Crucible, New York, New York
  • 2014: Hole, Massimo De Carlo, London, England, United Kingdom
  • 2017: Good Thing You Are Not Alone, New Museum, New York City, New York[18][6]
  • 2019: Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  • 2019: Door, Open, Shut, Hannoveraner Kunstverein, Hannover, Germany[19]

Group exhibitions

  • 2009
    • Nine Lives, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California[12]
    • Chinese Box, Overduin and Kite, Los Angeles, California
    • Berlin-Los Angeles: A Tale of Two (Other) Cities, Massimo de Carlo, Milan, Italy
  • 2010
    • How Soon Now, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Florida
    • One on One, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico
  • 2011
    • OH!, Galerie Patrick Sequin, Paris, France
    • American Exuberance, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Florida
    • George Herms: Xenophilia (Love of the Unknown), MOCA Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, California
  • 2012: The Residue of Memory, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado
  • 2013
    • Transforming the Known: Works from the Bert Kreuk Collection, Gemeentemuseum den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands
    • Test Platter, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York
    • CULM, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, California
    • A Selection of Resent Acquisitions, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
  • 2014
    • The Los Angeles Project, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
    • Golden State, MOCA Tucson, Tucson, Arizona
    • Maximalism, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
    • Procession, CAPC Musèe D'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France
  • 2015
    • New Skin, Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
    • Panoramas, The High Line, New York City, New York
    • Second Chances, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado
    • Sleepless: The Bed in History and Contemporary Art, 21er Haus, Vienna, Austria
    • Revolution In the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women 1947-2016, Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, Los Angeles, California

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  2. ^ a b Subotnick, Ali (27 November 2007). "Hammer Projects: Kaari Upson". Hammer Museum. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  3. ^ "Collection: Kaari Upson". The Museum of Contemporary Art. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  4. ^ "Kaari Upson". Massimo De Carlo. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  5. ^ a b Wilson, Michael (February 2010). "Kaari Upson". Artforum. 48 (6). Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  6. ^ a b Lucas, Josh (2017-04-19). "Kaari Upson". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  7. ^ "Kaari Upson, the Multimedia Artist Who 'Skewered the Fallacies of the American Dream,' Has Died at 51". Artnet News. 19 August 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Griffin, Jonathan (March 2012). "Life Study". Frieze Magazine. No. 145. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  9. ^ Farago, Jason (2016-06-28). "An interview with Kaari Upson". Even Magazine. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  10. ^ a b c Greenberger, Alex (19 August 2021). "Kaari Upson, Rising Star Whose Work Evoked Strange Psychological States, Is Dead at 49". ARTnews. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  11. ^ Ludel, Wallace (19 August 2021). "Kaari Upson, Los Angeles artist who obsessively explored identity, family and Americana, has died, aged 51". www.theartnewspaper.com. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-0943739366
    .
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-3863356248
    .
  14. ^ a b Mizota, Sharon (8 March 2009). "L.A.'s Artist Iconoclasts". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  15. ^ a b c Holte, Michael Ned Holte (February 2008). "Kaari Upson". Artforum. 46 (6). Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  16. ^ a b Campagnola, Sonia (2009). "Larry's House". Mousse Magazine. No. 21. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  17. ^ a b Soto, Paul (November 2011). "Thinking Inside the Box: Q+A With Kaari Upson". Art In America. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  18. ^ Ashfaque, Rabia (2017-07-14). "Kaari Upson: Good Thing You Are Not Alone". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  19. ^ Glauner, Max (12 October 2019). "Kaari Upson – Go Back The Way und You Came & Door, Open, Shut in Basel and Hannover". Retrieved 13 August 2020.
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