Limbs, eyes, lips, hands, feet and braids populate her sculptures, paintings and drawings, pulling viewers into their complex webs of form and narrative. Even in Upson’s abstractions, folds and orifices abound. Body as Landscape, whose title comes from a phrase found in one of the artist’s drawings, offers an in-depth look at Upson’s multilayered, kaleidoscopic works on paper, alongside one of her celebrated “mother’s leg” sculptural installations, which have never previously been shown in the US.

The second monumental work on view, Untitled (2015–21), is the largest and most ambitious drawing the artist ever produced. Upson’s drawing style was unique, filled with seemingly innumerable layers of bodily presences and texts rife with psychological exploration—all sourced from past artworks and readings, as well as the artist’s own writings and studies for future projects.

Many of her works on paper, such as this one, were created over many years, affixed to the studio walls to be worked and reworked as her ideas developed. Here, we see representations of her well-known sculptures cast from furniture (a sectional couch in the center left, for example); bodies of dolls and collaborators Upson worked with; a giant eye, perhaps of an animal, looks at us at the right with deep, unnerving intensity; while classroom notes on Lacan bring forward notions of time and trauma.

Like much of Upson’s work, her drawings connote mixed feelings of repulsion and attraction. A selection of smaller drawings, nearly all of which are presented for the first time, offer an intimate look at different approaches she took to paper media, as well as the motifs and characters that recurred throughout her practice: included are her semi-fictional fantasy man, Larry; his idol, Hugh Hefner, and his Playboy Mansion; Angelina Jolie; and an array of twins and models, as well as glimpses of the artist herself.