Kaari Upson’s recent domestic scenes—upended sofas and despoiled rolls of paper towels at the 2017 Whitney Biennial, and now the GOOD THING YOU ARE NOT ALONE show on the third floor of the New Museum—depict America as a big-box store gone to seed. Curated by New Museum associate curator Margot Norton, viewers are herded through tight spaces and uneasy confrontations.
“There’s no beginning, middle, or end in the work. It could be the end of something that I’m not even recognizing the line of, but then the beginning of something else that I don’t even know is about to happen.” — Kaari Upson*
KAARI UPSON: GOOD THING YOU ARE NOT ALONE, through September 10.
NEW MUSEUM, 235 Bowery, New York City
newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/kaari-upson
*Helen Stoilas, “Kaari Upson: Unfinished Artist,” The Art Newspaper, May 2, 2017:
theartnewspaper.com/reports/kaari-upson-unfinished-artist/
Kaari Upson, Untitled (1000 cans), 2015. Aluminum, 1,000 parts, each 5 × 2 1/4 in (12.7 × 5.7 cm). From the My Mother Drinks Pepsi series.
© Kaari Upson. Courtesy Kaari Upson, Massimo De Carlo, and Sprüth Magers. Photograph by Fredrik Nilsen Studio