Ugo Rondinone, Moonrise, East

UPPER LEVEL

Ugo Rondinone

Moonrise East is a work by Swiss-born, critically-acclaimed Ugo Rondinone. His art has graced galleries, exhibits, and spaces around the world, including in the Nevada desert where seven towering totems stand in bold and colorful display.
Marking the artist’s first venture into free-standing figurative sculptures, Moonrise East is the fourth and final installation in a 12-piece series. Each sculpture represents a month of the year and the collection overall is emblematic of nightfall, moonrise, and the sky–elements closely associated with time.
The eight-foot-tall, mask-like busts with grinning misshapen faces are set atop plinths of weathered wood. Modeled in clay, cast in aluminum and finally lacquered, it is no accident that their rippled surface bears the permanent imprint of Rondinone’s fingers. In this manner, the artist reflects on the relationship between the human condition and the natural world, specifically on mankind’s attempts to grasp and even manipulate the passage of time.
Rondinone, who lives and works in New York, is a master in a wide array of media, including drawing, painting, photography, video, architecture, and even sound.