Ugo Rondinone's waterfall at Gladstone Gallery: Twelve Gemstone-Resin Sculptures with the Artist's Hair and Nail Ashes

Key facts

• Ugo Rondinone's waterfall is on view at Gladstone Gallery's 21st Street location in New York from September 17 through October 31, 2026.
• The exhibition features twelve monumental vertical sculptures ranging from approximately 3.5 to 6 meters in height, arranged in an irregular grid.
• Each sculpture is made from transparent resin infused with pigments derived from crushed gemstones, including lapis lazuli, tanzanite, blue topaz, apatite, blue lace agate, selenite, tourmaline, amethyst, rose quartz, quartz, kyanite, and blue aventurine.
• Rondinone incorporates ashes from his own hair and fingernails into each work.
• Three earlier works are embedded into the gallery's architecture: a hand imprint, an aluminum zero emitting incense smoke, and a bronze keyhole.
• Rondinone was born in 1964 in Brunnen, Switzerland, studied at the Universität für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, and moved to New York in 1997.
• His work has been shown at the Centre Pompidou, Whitechapel Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Belvedere, the Städel Museum, Storm King Art Center, and the Aspen Art Museum.
• The sculptures embody three temporal scales: technological present (resin), geological deep time (gemstones), and human lifespan (artist's bodily remains).