Biography

Kaari Upson is a contemporary American artist. Working in a multidisciplinary practice that includes sculpture, installation, drawing, video, and performance, she explores the frailty of human connection in modern life. Her career began with her celebrated The Larry Project (2007–), wherein she used personal items found in a large abandoned home to produce a body of work that built a narrative around a stranger she has never met. Deeply intimate and probingly psychological, the series has occupied a central focus throughout Upson’s work as she has continued to expand her practice with totemic sculptures. “When I was trying to kind of hijack his life and put it together,” she explains, “I was researching how you could assess who somebody is.” Born in 1972 in San Bernadino, CA, she went on to earn both her BFA and MFA at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, where she began The Larry Project as a student. Major solo exhibitions include those held at the Hammer Museum in Los Angelens, Maccarone gallery in New York, and Massimo De Carlo in London, among others. She continues to live and work in San Bernadino, CA.