A major retrospective of American artist Kaari Upson's work is currently on display at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark, marking the first comprehensive exhibition of her art following her death from cancer in 2021 at age 51. The exhibition, titled "Dollhouse," occupies the museum's entire south wing and presents a haunting exploration of memory, domesticity, and the unsettling nature of everyday life.
The retrospective poses fundamental questions about the nature of memory and ownership of personal experiences. Upson had a distinctive talent for transforming familiar domestic spaces into something deeply unsettling, injecting an eerie quality into ordinary objects and environments. The exhibition is structured as a staged dollhouse that visitors can walk through, challenging them to question what aspects of their own experiences might be real or imagined.
Rather than following a chronological format, the show is organized around four thematic sections that reflect Upson's artistic preoccupations. "When Kaari met Larry" examines the impact of a half-real, half-fictional man on her work. "The life of things" explores how objects can contain and convey stories. "Haunted by history" presents stylized interpretations of her own life experiences, while "Endgame" focuses on Upson's artistic exploration of endings and death.
The exhibition showcases Upson's prolific output during the 2010s, featuring works across multiple media including sculpture, painting, film, installation, and drawings. Many pieces share identical titles, making it difficult to determine clear beginnings and endings of projects that sometimes spanned several years. This ambiguity reflects the time-twisting nature of Upson's artistic practice and her interest in the fluid boundaries between reality and fiction.
Larry, one of the most persistent characters in Upson's body of work, originated from her fascination with an abandoned house across from her childhood home. She began creating art based on her imagined narratives about the former resident's lifestyle, inspired by remnants left behind. The exhibition features several works from this period, including the large-scale installation "Recollection Hysteria" from 2012, where Upson recreated a room from the abandoned house using dingy-colored latex, positioning furniture and objects in gravity-defying arrangements with floors becoming walls and walls becoming ceilings.
Larry also appears in "Kiss" from 2008, where Upson pressed still-wet painted portraits of herself and the imagined neighbor together in various positions. Video works show her dissecting a dummy version of Larry's body while dressed as a nurse, embodying the phantom-like nature of this fictional character who became central to her artistic practice.
The exhibition features Upson's transformative approach to everyday furnishings, which become visceral, bodily works that viewers don't just observe but physically feel. "X (King)" from 2013 presents a silicone mattress that casts an unusual iridescence, while "Left Brace Erase, Back Brace Face" from 2016 features contorted sofas that are simultaneously nightmarish and inspiring. "Cult of Individualism" from 2012 consists of latex crutches marked with dirt and hair, blurring the line between fragility and something more bestial.
Two major installations directly address Upson's obsession with dollhouses and the corruption of childhood innocence. "There's No Such Thing As Outside" from 2017-19 features a life-size empty house with domestic items like pills, dentures, and coffee tables hidden in the dark crawlspace underneath, illuminated only by light filtering through holes in the wooden floor above. A nearby video shows Upson and a childhood friend playing children's games while distorted versions of their faces are projected over their closed eyes, with overlapping and echoing voices creating an unsettling atmosphere.
"Mothers Legs" from 2018-19 presents a forest of larger-than-life casts of Upson's own leg suspended from the ceiling like butchered meat. This installation suggests that spaces that seemed safe to a knee-high child were actually no sanctuary at all, transforming a place of refuge into something threatening and exposed.
The retrospective creates a deeply unsettling experience that taps into the relatable fear that the world may not be the safe place people want it to be, regardless of how much they engage in pretense. Throughout her work, Upson maintained a sense of soiled perfection, positioning viewers as voyeurs witnessing the battle between high expectations, performed belonging, and the harsh reality of existence.
The exhibition's location adds another layer of irony to Upson's exploration of domestic horror. Set in the idyllic Danish town of Humlebaek, which overlooks the calm waters of the Øresund Strait, museum visitors are invited to experience an artistic unraveling that contrasts sharply with the peaceful surroundings. This creates what can be described as intelligent play – one that reveals uncomfortable truths about familiar experiences and challenges visitors to question whether their memories accurately reflect reality.
The exhibition includes a dollhouse made by Upson's mother, Karin Upson, adding a personal dimension to the artist's exploration of domestic spaces and childhood experiences. Other notable works include "The Grotto" from 2008-9, a mixed media installation that further demonstrates Upson's ability to transform ordinary spaces into something psychologically complex.
"Kaari Upson: Dollhouse – A Retrospective" continues at the Louisiana Museum of Art in Humlebaek, Denmark, through October 26, 2025. The exhibition was co-organized by the Louisiana Museum of Art, Kunsthalle Mannheim, and Masi Lugano under the curation of Anders Kold. Following its run in Denmark, the retrospective will travel to Kunsthalle Mannheim in Germany from February 13 to May 31, 2026, and subsequently to Masi Lugano in Switzerland, with dates to be announced between 2026 and 2027.
