Farewell to artist Kaari Upson, who passed away from cancer at only 51 years old

U.S. artist Kaari Upson, who lost her battle with cancer, passed away in New York last Wednesday, August 18, at the age of only 51. Upson had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Reporting the news of her passing are three of the gallery owners who represented her, namely Massimo Decarlo, Sprüth Magers and White Cube. Born in San Bernardino, California, in 1970, she had trained at the California Institute of Arts, and had made her debut as an artist in 2003, with her projects on memory, particularly the Larry Project, a constantly developing work made up of boxes containing letters, documents, diaries, and photographs, and accompanied by a narrative project on the theme of memory to explore the identity of a stranger (Larry, that is).

A reader of Freud and Lacan, Upson created works that aimed to investigate psychological trauma resulting from the impossibility of achieving certain ideals that cultures and societies impose on individuals. A draftsman, sculptor, and performer, Upson made her debut with a solo show at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2007 and has since exhibited in several venues: among the most prestigious are the Kunsthalle Basel in 2019 and the New Museum in New York in 2017. In Italy, we remember her exhibition Sleep with the Key at the Massimo De Carlo Gallery in Milan in 2013, and in 2019 she exhibited at the Venice Biennale and in 2018 at the Milan Triennale. For her, there was also an appearance at the Whitney Biennial in 2017.

“Kaari was a force of nature and a beautiful human being,” said Jay Jopling, founder of White Cube. “Her work pierced the contradictions of the American dream.” Monika Sprüth and Philomene Maggers, founders of the gallery that bears their name, described her as, “brilliant and courageous, she spent the last fifteen years producing works that took viewers into worlds at once familiar and unfamiliar, often bleak and always deeply fascinating. Kaari will be deeply missed.”

Farewell to artist Kaari Upson, who passed away from cancer at only 51 years old

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