Ugo Rondinone: More Light | Sadie Coles HQ
Ugo Rondinone has taken over London’s gallery district this summer. He has three shows, running at once, two of them outdoors. There’s a rainbow arcing over the courtyard of the Royal Academy, on the way in to the Summer Exhibition, which has probably been the backdrop of thousands of date selfies.
Up the road, fifty-four flags line Bond Street, each one a different sunrise or sunset, pulled from a series Rondinone started back in 2016. I’d seen both of those in passing over the summer. I left the third part til last - and in its last week, with the first autumn leaves gathering in the Mayfair gutters.
More Light is the indoor leg, at Sadie Coles HQ. Six paintings on unprimed cotton, each a loose representation of a sunrise or sunset, using three bright colours. He traced the simple shapes in pencil, then adding light and loose washes of colour over the top. The edges of the washes stay open, so the edges look lightly, casually, unfinished.
The gallery’s show notes claim that the works are meditative. I found them loudly cute, almost as bold as the courtyard rainbow. There’s something generous about Rondinone’s work, anyway: nothing to decode, just lovely washes of colour. We get it, and we’re glad of their collective warmth.
Ugo Rondinone: More Light is at Sadie Coles HQ (London). 09 June - 22 August 2026