Kurt Kauper’s work was shown at the Whitney Biennial in the spring and summer of 2000, and appeared concurrently with his exhibition Diva Fictions at Deitch Projects. Kurt Kauper’s Diva Fictions featured his paintings of imaginary Opera Divas. Kauper used the vernacular of painterly realism to create an entirely invented, or artificial person: a person who has never existed but appears to have a personal history as real and verifiable as that of the viewer looking at the painting. The series of Divas is a visual record of an invented history. Kauper describes his Diva Fictions as occupying a place somewhere between realism and artificiality. It is in this ambiguous territory that their symbolic power is most resonant. Kauper’s most recent series, The Carey Grant Series was shown in the travelling exhibition Dear Painter, paint me...Painting the Figure After Picabia at the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. His most recent solo exhibition was at ACME, Los Angeles in 2003. Deitch Projects looks forward to an exhibition with Kurt Kauper in the upcoming 2006/2007 season. www.kurtkauper.com Select Essay or Articles Diva Fictions LA Times, A Cool Jolt from a Familiar Image The New York Times, With A Nervy Sense of Today The New York Times, Art in Review: Painting From Another Planet W Magazine, Creative Types Art in America, L.A. Portraiture: Post Cool Select Project Everybody Knew That Canadians Were The Best Hockey Players Diva Fictions Barack and Michelle Obama Art Basel Miami Beach 2005 Art Basel Miami Beach 2004 Painting From Another Planet: New Painting From Los Angeles