At Sadie Coles HQ, Ugo Rondinone’s newest exhibition, The Rainbow Body, showcases a collection of figurative sculptures immersed in a fluorescent setting. The stunning show is on view until August 2025 and coincides with the London Gallery Weekend in June.

The gallery space itself, walls, floors, and ceiling, is coated in rainbow tones that reflect the sculptures’ vibrant colors, creating a dynamic tension between the figures and their luminous environment. Included in the exhibition are bronze candle sculptures, which further emphasise the central theme of suspended time. It’s immersive and fascinating.

The Rainbow Body revisits key themes central to Rondinone’s practice: the interplay between the individual and the collective, and the link between fleeting moments and the vastness of cosmic time. The multicoloured figures, positioned throughout the main gallery floor, originate from his 2010 nude series, which presented fourteen casts of seated or crouching dancers made from smaller wax segments. In that earlier series, clear wax was combined with earth collected from each of the seven continents. The dancers, nude except for head coverings, appear in a state of quiet stillness with their eyes closed. The deliberate seams visible between body parts interrupt the naturalistic effect of the casts, questioning traditional notions of realism.

The rainbow colours unify the figures within an immersive setting, acting as what Rondinone describes as a “bridge between everything and everyone,” while the vibrant gallery space transforms into a stage full of potential. As Rondinone explains, the dancers are “passive, simply being themselves without any activity or conscious judgment.”