I was taking a class with a French film theorist, Bérénice Reynaud, and the only class she was teaching that semester was about women who kill. It was the best way to enter film theory. I grew up seeing not one film… If you look at any of the female personas that I’ve taken, in videos or performances, they came from Reynaud’s class… There is a set number of female roles in film. Caretaker, castrator, mother, wife, whore. She would just list them, and I would write it down. And I would take on one. — Kaari Upson*
A year after her death, the world of Kaari Upson continues to grow.
Never, never ever, never in my life, never in all my born days, never in all my life, never—an exhibition of some of her final works, including those from the current Venice Biennale, seen for the first time in this country—is on view for three more weeks at Sprüth Magers in Los Angeles. At the DESTE Foundation in Athens, Upson’s good friend Dakis Joannou has curated the survey show Kaari Upson: Never Enough. And back in L.A., the Museum of Contemporary Art and LAND present an evening of Kaari Upson—Selected Shorts, mostly starring the late artist in a variety of guises.
See links below for details.
Wednesday, September 28, at 6:30 pm
MOCA Grand Avenue
250 South Grand Avenue, downtown Los Angeles
Through October 15
Sprüth Magers
5900 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles
Through October 27
DESTE Foundation
11 Filellinon and Em. Pappa, Nea Ionia, Athens
KAARI UPSON — 59th VENICE BIENNALE
Through November 27
Central Pavilion
Calle Dietro Il Paludo 849, Venice
*Jason Farago, “An Interview with Kaari Upson,” Even 4 (Summer 2016).
Kaari Upson, from top: Never Enough, DESTE Foundation, Athens, May 26–October 27, 2022, exhibition view; Others, (2019, still), video, color, sound; Untitled, 2015–2021, graphite and ink on paper; Never, never ever, never in my life, never in all my born days, never in all my life, never, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, August 4–October 15, 2022, exhibition view; Never Enough, exhibition views (2). Images © The Art Trust created under The Kaari Upson Trust, courtesy of Sprüth Magers.
