Kaari Upson’s (b.1970, San Bernardino; d.2021, Los Angeles) expansive practice – traversing drawing, installation, sculpture, and video – explores the psyche of human experience by imagining and uncovering narratives relating to gender, power, desire, and memory. One of Upson’s most known and longest-standing series, The Larry Project, was inspired by the discovery of an abandoned California mansion in which the occupant had opulently modelled himself on Playboy’s founder Hugh Hefner. In response, Upson constructed a speculative realism imagining the life of this figure, dealing with themes of obsession, fantasy and reality, public and private. Upson is also known for casting abandoned objects – mattresses, cushions, pillows – from the streets of Los Angeles in painted silicon and resin; giving intimate attention to the contaminated and chaotic psychology of the seemingly mundane objects around us.
Upson attended the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture and later attended California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) where she received her BFA in 2004 and MFA in 2007. Upson has received solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel (2019); Kunstverein Hannover (2019); New Museum, New York (2017) and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2007), among many others. Upson also participated in the 58th Venice Biennale (2017) and the Whitney Biennial (2017). Upson’s work resides in many prestigious institutional collections. Among them are Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk.