Talk

This spring, Public Art Fund brings together a series of talks by three distinctive artists whose work transforms the boundaries of objects and space in the public realm. Whether through the scale of forms that shrink or expand in response to a specific context, or through the permeability of concepts, ideas and emotions that exist in their work, each of the artists showcased in this series explores the ways in which art has the ability to alter our experience of public space and the nature of sculpture itself.

Over the past twenty years, Ugo Rondinone (b. 1964, Brunnen, Switzerland) has produced a strikingly diverse body of work that encompasses multiple mediums, including sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, video, and curatorial projects. Through trance-inducing mandala paintings, large-scale drawings from nature, or immersive multi-channel video environments, Rondinone’s poetic and evocative work explores the emotional and psychic depth of human experience. In recent years he has increasingly turned his attention to public projects, including neon rainbow signs and large-scale figurative works. His newest outdoor exhibition, Human Nature, opened at Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan on April 23 and features nine 16- to 20-foot tall stone figures that weigh up to 15 tons each.

Rondinone has exhibited widely in Europe and the United States and in 2007 he represented Switzerland (with Urs Fischer) at in the 52nd Venice Biennale. Major solo exhibitions have been presented by Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2010); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla, León, Spain (2009); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (2009); Institute of Contemporary Art Boston (2008); Hayward Gallery, London (2008); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2006); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2003); and Kuntsthalle, Vienna (2002).

Public Art Fund Talks at The New School are organized by the Public Art Fund in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.