Ugo Rondinone, light-filled London flags and summer installations
Published on 08/24/2026 at 15:05 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Ugo Rondinone shapes London’s summer streets with color and light. As Bond Street and the Royal Academy of Arts detail, his flag installation LIGHT over Bond Street and the rainbow text work THE SONG IS YOU in the Academy courtyard run through mid-August 2026. Bond Street feature on Art in Mayfair
London installations and summer dates
The Art in Mayfair 2026 program presents Ugo Rondinone’s LIGHT as a chain of fifty-four flags installed along Bond Street, inspired by his long-running sunrisesunset watercolor series and visible until around mid-August 2026. Dirimart note on Art in Mayfair
Parallel to the flags, the Royal Academy of Arts invited Rondinone to take over its historic courtyard. The installation THE SONG IS YOU spans around ten meters as a rainbow LED text piece, welcoming visitors to the Summer Exhibition 2026 between June 16 and August 23, 2026. Mennour exhibition overview
Exhibition constellation across London
The courtyard work forms part of a three-part constellation of Ugo Rondinone projects in London in 2026, extending from the Royal Academy’s threshold into Bond Street and the gallery interior. The painting exhibition more light at Sadie Coles HQ on Bury Street in St James’s runs from June 9 to August 22, 2026. ArtPlugged report on more light
Rondinone’s own exhibition list corroborates this cluster, naming the song is you at the Royal Academy, more light at Sadie Coles HQ, and the public flag project light in Art in Mayfair as three distinct but related formats staged in London in summer 2026. His website places them under the heading 'night day 2026'. Ugo Rondinone exhibition overview
All news and background on Ugo Rondinone
Further coverage at AD HOC NEWS tracks Ugo Rondinone’s exhibitions, public installations and institutional projects across Europe and beyond.
The work core and materials
Ugo Rondinone is known for large-scale sculptures, text-based installations and chromatic environments that merge poetic language with everyday materials. The London works continue his exploration of light, weather and time through formats such as flags, LED lettering and watercolor-based imagery.
Where the artist stands now
Ugo Rondinone’s London constellation of LIGHT, THE SONG IS YOU and more light defines his current presence in Europe, anchored in the summer 2026 exhibition and public-art season.
Key facts on Ugo Rondinone
- Artist: Ugo Rondinone
- Medium / Genre: Sculpture and installation (conceptual, chromatic)
- Born: 1964, Brunnen, Switzerland
- Place(s) of practice: Studio in New York and multiple European project sites
- Active since: Early 1990s, with early institutional exhibitions in Europe
- Key work groups: sunrisesunset, nuns and monks, stone figures, rainbow texts
- Current/last exhibition: more light, Sadie Coles HQ, London, June 9 to August 22, 2026
- Major collections: Museum of Modern Art (New York), Columbus Museum of Art, Kunstmuseum Bern, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam)
- Awards: Several public-art commissions and institutional honors documented across European and US programs
- Next date: summer 2026 London installations and gallery exhibition forming the latest documented constellation
Frequently asked questions about Ugo Rondinone
Where can I see Ugo Rondinone in London in summer 2026?
Ugo Rondinone’s works are visible in the Royal Academy of Arts courtyard with THE SONG IS YOU, along Bond Street through the flags of LIGHT, and at Sadie Coles HQ in St James’s with the exhibition more light.
What is the concept behind the flags installation LIGHT?
The fifty-four flags in LIGHT translate individual sunrise and sunset motifs from Rondinone’s watercolor series into geometric color fields above Bond Street, creating a shifting ribbon of chromatic atmosphere.
How does THE SONG IS YOU relate to Ugo Rondinone’s broader practice?
THE SONG IS YOU extends Rondinone’s long engagement with rainbow text sculptures and poetic phrases, combining LED technology with chromatic lettering to mark an institutional threshold at the Royal Academy of Arts.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
