Swiss contemporary artist Ugo Rondinone’s solo exhibition the rainbow body is currently on view at the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado, USA. This exhibition is Rondinone’s first major institutional show in the American West. Rondinone’s practice, spanning over three decades, has covered a wide range of media including photography, painting, poetry, outdoor sculpture, and neon rainbow signage, often exploring motifs of nature and human life. 

the rainbow body covers the multivalent significance of the rainbow, the title referencing a spiritual rite in Tibetan Buddhism in which the body is transformed into five rays of light upon death. This exhibition presents thirteen fluorescent, life-size wax casts of dancers in the gallery titled nude (rainbow) (2021), as well as several bronze candles, appearing melted to various heights, titled still.life. (2013), capturing moments of impermanence in more enduring material. 

Rondinone’s works incorporate recurrent motifs of the natural and primordial world such as rocks, clouds, and the sun, as well as language and systems of communication such as lyrics or slogans, exploring human subjectivity and experience. Highlighting the meditative contemplations and expansive practice of Ugo Rondinone, the rainbow body continues through March 30.