NAPLES.- Alfonso Artiaco is presenting Ugo Rondinone’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, entitled ORA BLU.

The solo show inaugurates the gallery’s new location at Palazzo Partanna, Piazza dei Martiri 58, Naples.

The exhibition opens on Friday, April 4th at 7pm, in the presence of the artist.


Dive into the poetic world and diverse practice of artist Ugo Rondinone. Shop books by and about Ugo Rondinone on Amazon.


Born in Brunnen, Switzerland, in 1964 and now based in New York, Ugo Rondinone is recognised as one of the most significant artists of his generation. His practice is distinguished by a deeply poetic language, where metaphorical and iconographic imagery converge in a meditation on time, nature, and human experience. Moving fluidly across sculpture, installation, video, and performance, Rondinone explores the intersection of modernity and archaism, precision and spontaneity, form and emotion. Suspended between pathos and irony, his works transform the everyday into a contemplative experience, inviting viewers into a space where memory and dream converge.

With “ORA BLU”, Rondinone further develops his signature immersive aesthetic, paying exclusive homage to one of Naples’ most iconic symbols: Vesuvius. In this series, deep, layered chromatic washes evoke the volcano’s imposing presence, capturing its ever-changing essence and poetic intensity. Colour, a fundamental element of his practice, becomes a vehicle for transition and transformation, translating the topography of the landscape into an intimate, universal dimension. This body of work marks a further evolution of his artistic language, reinforcing the ritualistic nature of his process and the organic, ever-expanding vocabulary of his visual lexicon.

The mural-like evocation of Vesuvius unfolds as a visual narrative, guiding the viewer through a temporal journey from day to night, mirroring the experience of those who walk through the space. The interplay of color and atmosphere creates a choral composition, an ode to contemplation, where shifting hues shape mood and perception. In this suspended space between reality and imagination, the landscape is transfigured, becoming an inner territory, a fragment of collective memory, an invitation to meditation.

Each work in “ORA BLU” bears the date of its creation, underscoring the bond between the artist’s gesture and the passage of time. This choice, stripped of any artifice, restores an essential purity to the work, opening a threshold through which the viewer may step into the intimate rhythm of the creative process. Beyond mere representation, these works evoke a deeper dimension, where nature, romanticism, and existential reflection intertwine, suggesting an unbroken and profound interconnectedness between being, place, and time.

Selected solo exhibitions: the rainbow body, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2025); burn to shine, Museum SAN, Wonju (2024); sunrise. east, Städel Museum, Francoforte (2023); the sun and the moon, Storm King Art Center, New Windsor (2023); when the sun goes down and the moon comes up, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Ginevra (2023); the water is a poem unwritten by the air no. the earth is a poem unwritten by the fire, Petit Palais, Parigi (2022-23); LIFE TIME, Schirn Kunsthalle, Francoforte (2022); vocabulary of solitude, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Città del Messico (2022) e Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2016); moonrise. east. july, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2017); good evening beautiful blue, The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach (2017); golden days and silver nights, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2015); Ugo Rondinone: Human Nature, Public Art Fund, Rockefeller Plaza, New York (2013); roundelay, Centre Pompidou, Parigi (2003); no how on, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2002); So much water so close to home, MoMA PS1, New York (2000).

Selected group exibitions: Apropos Hodler. Aktuelle Blicke auf eine Ikone, Kunsthaus Zürich (2024); One-on-One: Ugo Rondinone / Louis Eilshemius, Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (2023); Boijmans van Beuningen at Rijksmuseum, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2023); Artists Choose Parrish, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY (2023); not my circus, not my monkeys. the circus motif in contemporary art, Kunstmuseum Thun (2023); Broken Music Vol. 2: 70 years of records and sound works by artists, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlino (2022); Out of joint – Moments of disruption part 2, Migros Museum, Zurigo (2022); Paradise Kortrijk 2021, Triennale di arte contemporanea, Kortrijk (2021); Sculpture Garden Biennale, Parc des Eaux-Vives, Ginevra (2018).

Curation: Sculpture Milwaukee (2022); artists and poets, Secession, Vienna (2015); the third mind, Palais de Tokyo, Parigi (2007); I Love John Giorno, Palais de Tokyo, Parigi (2016).

His pieces are held in many collections, amongst them:The Bass Museum of Art, Miami; Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Roma; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurigo; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Strasburgo; Musée national d’art moderne - Centre Pompidou, Parigi; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; New Museum, New York; The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Inaugurated in May 2016, the monumental structure Seven Magic Mountains, created with Art Production Fund and Nevada Museum of Art, is visitable in the desert nearby Las Vegas.



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