Kaari Upson

Dollhouse.
Una Retrospettiva
Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano

Bodies Bear Scars. Objects Harbor Secrets. Memories Linger on Mattresses.

Kaari Upson (b. San Bernardino, Calif., 1970; d. New York, 2021) was one of the defining voices of her generation. In sculptures, installations, videos, and drawings, she explored the fragile boundary between memory and identity, between the self and social reality. Taking inspiration from her Californian roots, Upson developed a complex and yet often profoundly personal practice that blended intimacy and inscrutability, closeness and alienation in haunting works. Her presentation at the 2019 Venice Biennale confirmed her stature as an artist of international note.

On occasion of the posthumous retrospective of Kaari Upson’s work, which opened at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, and will travel to Kunsthalle Mannheim and MASI Lugano, this extensive publication is released in two language editions. Essays by Francesca Benini, Elena Filipovic, Michael Ned Holte, Johan Holten, Anders Kold, and Paulina Pobocha provide in-depth insights into Upson’s creative thinking and practice, shedding light on central themes and material strategies in her oeuvre and opening up new room for interpretation. An invitation to meet an artist whose oeuvre continues to cast a spell over us after her untimely death—affecting, unsettling, and possessed of timeless intensity.