The artist’s Larry Project explored hypermasculinity and states of mind
The Los Angeles-based artist Kaari Upson whose work spanned painting, sculpture, video and performance, has died at the age of 51.
‘Kaari was a force of nature and a beautiful human being’, said White Cube founder Jay Jopling in a statement. ‘Her work powerfully skewered the fallacies of the American dream’.
Upson was born in San Bernardino, California, in 1970. While studying at the California Institute of the Arts, she discovered an abandoned McMansion – devastated by fire – and the possessions of its former owner which the artist came to call ‘Larry’.
From 2005 to 2012, Upson created the ‘Larry Project’ centred around the imaginary life of the house’s occupant – described by the artist as a ‘poor man’s Hugh Hefner’ – exploring hypermasculinity, in works which ranged from erotic drawings to films.
Upson’s later work saw her create to-scale replica silicone mattresses, sometimes hung on walls and twisted into contorted positions.
Upson’s mix of psychology and fiction, research and acting out created ‘a psychotic tour de force in which the sometimes-deserted, other times lively spaces and the people performing in them are charged with an emotional strength that repels and fascinates,’ wrote Raimar Stange in a 2019 review of the artist’s show at Kunstverein Hannover.
