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Jaume Plensa: from Barcelona to the world

Jaume Plensa: from Barcelona to the world

Jaume Plensa, artist and sculptor

Although Jaume Plensa is a multi-faceted artist, he is principally a sculptor. An internationally-renowned native of Barcelona, Jaume Plensa's sculptures can be found all over the world. His studio, nevertheless, is close to Barcelona, in Sant Feliu del Llobregat.

Singapore, Toronto, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, New York and Barcelona all have a Plensa sculpture on one of their streets. Although Plensa’s intention is for his works to blend into their surroundings, it is impressive to see how the work of this Catalan artist plays an important part in the urban landscape in so many corners of the globe.

Plensa's work is highly regarded and has received numerous national and international awards. He regularly shows his work in galleries and museums around the world, but a large number of his sculptures are also displayed in public spaces. The 4.5 meter high iron sculpture 'Carmela' (2015), for example, is located in front of the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.

The most complex of his installations, however, 'Crown Fountain' (2004) in Chicago, unites materials and technology. Two large blocks equipped with LED technology project the faces of citizens of Chicago, while water pours out of their mouths. The work took 4 years to complete.

Search for individuality

Plensa works with a range of very different materials: iron, glass, marble, polyester, aluminum and fiberglass. His work always returns to the same theme, however: a search for the inner world, the essence of being, the individual as an entity and his or her relationship with the community; from the small to the general, from the particular to the universal.

Spiritual, reflective and, some would say, even mystical, Jaume Plensa is a sculptor of sensations. His work prompts dialogue and raises questions about the individual and his or her relationship with the community. In many cases his sculptures are unfinished bodies or faces, suspended in air, frozen in time.

"Plensa's sculptures can be found in very different places around the world"

Last year Plensa erected work temporarily in places as different as the Monastery of Montserrat, the Rockefeller Center in New York, and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

The exhibitions scheduled for 2020 (postponed and due to be rescheduled because of the Covid-19 crisis) include shows at the Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago and Galerie Lelong&Co in New York and the unveiling of a new sculpture called “Dreaming” in a public space in Toronto.

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