Ugo Rondinone Talks To Ilka Scobie About His Latest NY And London Exhibitions

“Every religion has Nuns and Monks,” Ugo Rondinone remarks as we finish up bowls of miso soup. We are in my Noho loft, enjoying an early Sunday supper. Getting back to Ugo’s upcoming show “Nuns & Monks” opening at the Gladstone Gallery in Chelsea, and his current show spread over two of Sadie Coles HQ in London, I ask him about the materials. “Stones have been a presence and recurring material and symbolism in my art.” These sixteen-foot cloaked figures join the artists’ tribe of extraordinary stone sculptures “Human Nature” that graced Rockefeller Center in 2013 and the elemental eight-foot moon rise masks of 2005-2006.