Jaume Plensa, an artist of international renown
Jaume Plensa creates sculptures and installations that unify individuals through connections of spirituality, the body, and collective memory. Literature, psychology, biology, language, and history have remained key guiding elements throughout Plensa’s career. Using a wide range of materials – including marble, alabaster, steel, cast iron, resin, paraffin wax, glass, light, water, and sound – Plensa lends physical weight and volume to components of the human condition and the ephemeral.
Plensa has presented major solo exhibitions at numerous museums and sculpture parks, including the Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa; Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona; Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art, Nashville; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England; Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris; Kunsthalle Mannheim; Institut Valencia d’Art Moderne, Valencia; and Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona.
On the occasion of the 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, one of Venice’s most celebrated landmarks, the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, hosted Together; a conversation between two sculptures – a hand suspended beneath the cupola in the foreground of the altar and a head sited in the nave. Located near the basilica’s entrance, the Officina dell’Arte Spirituale, housed meticulous drawings and five alabaster portraits by Plensa. In June 2016, The Toledo Museum of Art will present Jaume Plensa: Human Landscape, a major exhibition of large outdoor sculptures and indoor installations that previously traveled to The Frist Centre for the Visual Arts, Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art, and the Tampa Museum of Art.
Plensa is also highly active in public commissions—celebrated works by Plensa are located in Madison Square Park, New York; Millennium Park, Chicago; the Burj Khalifa, Dubai; the BBC Broadcasting Tower, London; Pearson International Airport, Toronto; Daikanyama, Tokyo; and Raoul Wallenberg Square, Stockholm, among many other sites worldwide.
Jaume Plensa was born in Barcelona in 1955, and he currently lives and works in Barcelona and Paris.
