Photos By Gail

Swiss-born, New York–based artist Ugo Rondinone has long been known for creating works that blur the line between the natural and the spiritual, the playful and the profound. His recent small sculpture, blue pink nun (2025), is part of his ongoing Nuns + Monks series — a body of work that distills human form into cloaked, meditative figures rendered in stone and painted in bold, unexpected color combinations.

Unlike Rondinone’s monumental outdoor sculptures, blue pink nun is intimate in scale — measuring just under 15 inches tall — and crafted from painted stone with a stainless steel core. The piece is composed of two simple forms stacked together: a rounded “head” set atop a roughly cylindrical “body.” Its vibrant surface treatment —bands of saturated blue and pink — lends the figure both a contemporary vibrancy and an otherworldly aura.

The nuns + monks series takes inspiration from medieval sculpture and spiritual archetypes, yet Rondinone pares these references down to their essence. What remains is a universal silhouette, at once archaic and modern, solemn and whimsical. By reducing the figure to color and form, the artist invites viewers to pause, reflect, and perhaps even find a moment of stillness —s omething rare in contemporary life.

With blue pink nun, Ugo Rondinone demonstrates that quiet contemplation need not be monumental. Sometimes, even a modestly scaled work can radiate presence and serenity.

Photographed in the Esther Schipper Gallery at the 2025 Frieze Art Fair in NYC.