Installation view, bright light shining’ at Gladstone Gallery (2023). All images © Gladstone Gallery, courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, shared with permission
Artist Ugo Rondinone (previously) captures the explosive energy of lightning as part of his latest exhibition bright shining light. On view through November 9 at Gladstone Gallery, a trio of bronze sculptures stand more than 20 feet tall, piercing the otherwise gray gallery. Painted in dayglo yellow, the bold hue evokes a radiant incandescence of striking bolts as they branch down from the ceiling.
When the viewer moves around and through the pieces, their distinct shapes and directions change. As the exhibition photos reveal, the branch-like works appear almost animated, shifting in choreographed movement depending on the viewer’s perspective. Their titles—”sublime light,” “glorious light,” and “blissful light”—more directly invoke Rondinone’s interest in the divine and transcendence and add to the strange, dreamlike qualities of the works.
The artist’s smaller, wall-based “alluring cloud” is also included in bright shining light. Made of sand, gravel, and concrete, the nebulous piece hangs in a corner of the gallery and freezes another brief moment in time. “alluring cloud” more explicitly links Earth and sky through its materials and subject matter, and this duality matches others within the exhibition, including between artificial and natural and electric and non. Rondinone “captures the excitement, fear, and impending change brought on by environmental happenings, seemingly out of our control,” a statement says.
Find more from the artist on his site and Instagram. (via Design Milk)
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