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Press Release Kukje Gallery Ugo Rondinone (Swiss, b.1964) 2015. 09. 01 – 2015. 10.11

Kukje Gallery K3 Press Conference: 11:00 a.m. September 1, 2015 (K3) www.kukjegallery.com

“...the system and concept of time, which has occupied my work since the beginning, gives me a certain sense of grounding.”

Ugo Rondinone

Kukje Gallery is very pleased to announce its first exhibition with

Ugo Rondinone. Rondinone has garnered international attention

for his poetic, evocative work across a wide range of styles and

media. Often working on multiple ongoing series over many

years, the artist is primarily interested in conducting personal

investigations of the way materials possess and dispense energy.

Such concern is rooted deeply in Rondinone’s keen observation

of social dynamics and the way an environment impacts the emotional register of a person,

often by evoking deep memories. Installed in K3, the exhibition will provide a comprehensive

introduction to the artist’s diverse practice and charged work.

Gaining prominence in the 1990s, Rondinone’s work was heralded both for its preternatural use

of material and its open-ended, emotional content. His installations and series, exploring

themes of sexuality, boredom, nature, and the shifting tonalities of a prosaic life, were

immediately celebrated for their mastery of intertwining both personal and popular themes.

Contrasting subjects matter like ancient trees and clowns characterize his oeuvre, as well as his

use of humor to disarm and activate the landscape as seen in his large-scale rainbow signs.

Rondinone’s confident and incisive voice is instrumental in allowing his viewers to enter the

work without bias, as if seeing these things for the first time.

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Ugo Rondinone, Photo by Christian Schoppe

courtesy of studio rondinone

image provided by Kukje Gallery

For his show at Kukje Gallery, Rondinone presents a series of five of his bluestone sculptures—

monolithic sculptures consisting of blue stones that were cut and stacked to form raw but

surprisingly emotive human effigies. Retaining the marks of the sculptural and quarrying

process, these raw forms are titled the nosy, the anomalous, the observant, the inquisitive, and

the dutiful. The stone figures arranged throughout the gallery bear silent but poignant witness to

the natural eddies of time creating an ambiguous yet charged tableaux.

Ugo Rondinone was born in Brunnen, Switzerland in 1964, and currently lives and works in

New York City. He has had solo exhibitions at Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges

Pompidou, Paris (2003); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2006); Creative Time: Art on the

Plaza, Battery Park, New York (2007); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2007);

Hayward Gallery, London (2008), Public Art Fund for the Rockefeller Plaza, New York (2013);

M-Museum, Leuven (2013); Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2014), amongst many others.

Rondinone represented Switzerland, along with Urs Fischer, in the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007).

Rondinone’s work is featured in major museum collections, including Museum of Modern Art,

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New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Walker

Art Center, Minneapolis; and Dallas Museum of Art.

Communications Director Zoe Chun (82-2-3210-9885, 82-10-9601-5411 / E-mail. zoe@kukjegallery.com)

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Copyright and credit line must be placed adjacent or near to the reproduced images. Images cannot be edited without prior permission.

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the inquisitive

2015

bluestone and steel

courtesy of studio rondinone

image provided by Kukje Gallery

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breathe walk die

2014

neon, acrylic glass, translucent foil, aluminum

photo by Daniel Boccato, courtesy of studio rondinone, 2014

image provided by Kukje Gallery

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installation view of UGO RONDINONE: BREATHE WALK DIE at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, 2014.

courtesy of Studio Rondinone and Rockbund Art Museum

image provided by Kukje Gallery

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installation view of Human Nature at the Rockefeller Center, New York, 2013.

photo by James Ewing, courtesy of Public Art Fund

image provided by Kukje Gallery

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installation view of the night of lead at MUSAC, León, 2009.

courtesy of studio rondinone

image provided by Kukje Gallery