{"id":294256,"date":"2026-02-20T23:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/294256\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T23:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:53:13","slug":"rainbow-dreams-maps-the-spectrum-of-contemporary-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/294256\/","title":{"rendered":"rainbow dreams maps the spectrum of contemporary art"},"content":{"rendered":"

how contemporary artists construct experience through color<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rainbow Dreams: Color and Light in Contemporary Art, a book<\/a> published by The Monacelli Press<\/a>, gathers more than 200 works by leading contemporary artists into a single, spectrum-spanning volume that examines how color operates as material, concept, and atmosphere. Edited by Olga Rei and Valentine Uhovski, the hardback positions color as structure, language, and experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conceived as a visual archive and thematic survey, the book moves from the optical intensity of neon and LED installations to pigment-saturated canvases and monumental spatial interventions. Artists featured in Rainbow Dreams include\u00a0Takashi Murakami<\/a>, Yayoi Kusama<\/a>, Olafur Eliasson<\/a>, Katharina Grosse<\/a>, Judy Chicago, Jeff Koons<\/a>, Sarah Sze<\/a>, Mickalene Thomas, Paola Pivi<\/a>, Nina Chanel Abney, Derrick Adams, Carlos Cruz-Diez<\/a>, Kimsooja<\/a>, Do Ho Suh,<\/a> DRIFT<\/a> and Tom\u00e1s Saraceno<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"rainbow
Kimsooja, To Breathe \u2013 Leeum, 2022 | artwork \u00a9 the artist \/ courtesy Leeum Museum of Art and Kimsooja Studio | image by Seungbeom Hur<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

from landscape interventions to chromatic abstraction<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The book proposes that color remains one of contemporary art\u2019s most adaptable tools. It can be structural or symbolic, immersive or ironic, technological or tactile. Across its 200 works, the spectrum becomes a way to organize perception itself.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edited by Olga Rei, curator and co-founder of Rainbow Contemporary, a creative collective<\/a> that designs and delivers charitable initiatives with a focus on community well-being, and Valentine Uhovski, a cultural strategist with experience across technology and media, the volume situates these practices within a broader cultural landscape shaped by digital saturation and visual acceleration. Rainbow Dreams accumulates examples and composes a chromatic field guide, moving across geographies, media, and generations.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ugo Rondinone\u2019s Seven Magic Mountains (2016) presents stacked fluorescent boulders rising from the Nevada desert, compressing geological time into a hyper-saturated monument. Ian Davenport\u2019s Poured Staircase (2021) translates gravity into chromatic flow, as pigment cascades down architectural steps. Beatriz Milhazes\u2019 Marilola (2010\u201315) layers pattern and color into rhythmic abstraction, while Athi-Patra Ruga\u2019s The Future White Woman of Azania 1 (2012) uses theatrical excess to reframe identity and myth.<\/p>\n

\"rainbow
Kimsooja, To Breathe \u2013 A Mirror Woman, 2022 | artwork \u00a9 the artist \/ courtesy Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sof\u00eda and Kimsooja Studio | image by Jaeho Chong<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

rainbow dreams pushes pigment and light into spatial form<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Installation-based practices form a substantial part of the book\u2019s narrative. Liz West\u2019s Our Color (2016) transforms an interior into a corridor of prismatic light. Kimsooja\u2019s To Breathe works (2022) flood museum spaces with diffraction and reflection. Gabriel Dawe\u2019s Plexus A1 (2015) stretches thread into suspended chromatic gradients that behave like solidified rainbows.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Sho Shibuya\u2019s ongoing Sunrise from a small window series translates daily headlines into gradient abstractions, while Shoplifter\u2019s Chromo Sapiens (2019) envelops viewers in synthetic hair installations that oscillate between pop spectacle and sensory immersion. The selection suggests that color today often exceeds the canvas, becoming environmental and bodily.<\/p>\n

\"rainbow
Do Ho Suh, Installation view: Do Ho Suh: Passage\/s, 2017 | \u00a9 Do Ho Suh. courtesy the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London; and Victoria Miro | image by Thierry Bal<\/p>\n

\"rainbow
Ian Davenport, Poured Staircase, 2021 | artwork \u00a9 the artist | image by Prudence Cuming Associates<\/p>\n

\"rainbow
Sho Shibuya, Sunrise from a small window, May 2020\u2013ongoing | image by \u00a9 shoshibuya<\/p>\n

\"rainbow
Paola Pivi, Untitled (ladder), 2021. Image credit: artwork \u00a9 the artist \/ courtesy Paola Pivi and Perrotin | image by Tanguy Beurdeley<\/p>\n

\"rainbow
Gabriel Dawe, Plexus A1, 2015 | artwork \u00a9 the artist | image by Ron Blunt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"how contemporary artists construct experience through color \u00a0 Rainbow Dreams: Color and Light in Contemporary Art, a book…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,63582,156,111,139,69,162510],"class_list":{"0":"post-294256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-designboom-book-reports","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-phaidon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}