Ugo Rondinone
Born in 1964, in Brunnen (Switzerland), Ugo Rondinone lives and works in New York. He graduated in 1990 from the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst, in Vienna.
He is represented by the following galleries: Gladstone (New York), Eva Presenhuber (Zürich), Esther Shipper (Berlin) and the Galerie Almine Reich (Paris and Brussels).

Statement
Having made a name for himself in the 1990s with his photographic self-portraits in poses inspired by the world of fashion and representations of sleeping clowns examining the notions of idleness and identity, Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone occupies a central place in contemporary art today. His oeuvre features paintings, videos, performances, public art and atmospheric environmental productions combining sound, and still and moving images. His works may be said to question perception, the relationship between Man and his environment, the urban and the vegetal. The motif of the threshold is often featured (doors, windows) and invites us to question the notions of physical, as well as mental, excess. Rondinone invites the viewer to enjoy contemplative, immersive experiences subtly combined with a reflection on Art.

Still Life (One Egg), 2012
Sculpture, Bronze, lead, paint
4,8 x 4,8 x 6,3 cm
Edition 2/3
Acquisition in 2013

Still life (One Egg) belongs to the Still Life series (ongoing since the late 2000s) which is made up of bronze sculptures consisting of life-size reproductions of modest, everyday objects (nut shells, half-used wax candles, potatoes, etc.). As the title explicitly states, the motifs are borrowed from the pictorial genre of still life. Leaving behind the flatness of the canvas, these small volumes are transferred to a new context. They are often placed directly on the ground and when grouped together are sometimes arranged in a linear fashion. Far from the effect of a precious Fabergé egg or from the symbolic Christian dimension of the decorated Easter egg, the power of Still Life (One Egg) lies not necessarily in its derisory appearance but rather in its power of evocation – the egg is an essential and metaphoric form which invites us to reflect upon metaphysical matters. Between mimesis and truth, art and life, this work provokes dizzying reflection, conjuring up scientific theories (evolution), as well as aesthetic ones (illusion, time).