Kaari Upson

Kaari Upson (April 22, 1970 – August 18, 2021) was an American artist. The bulk of Upson’s career was devoted to a single series titled The Larry Project – paintings, installations, performances, and films inspired by a collection of one man's personal items she found in 2003. The Larry Project was exhibited at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2008, as part of their program Hammer Projects. Her work resides in the public collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and is known for exploring themes of psychoanalysis, obsession, memory, and the body.

Biography Upson was born in San Bernardino, California, on April 22, 1970. However her date of birth is often listed as 1972, incorrectly.

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

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.' His hyper-masculine "Ladies' Man" persona became a site of exploration for Upson's own performances of gender, power, and desire. In 2011, Upson cast architectural copies of 'Larry's' former house into soft pink latex, as well as other objects, like a chandelier and an iron gate. 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 2025: Dollhouse - A Retrospective, Louisiana, Humlebaek, Denmark

Group exhibitions 2009 Nine Lives, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California 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