The Spanish artist Jaume Plensa is recognized as one of the world’s leading contemporary sculptors. He is renowned for his large-scale sculptures depicting human faces and figures and is celebrated for his immersive installations that blend sculpture, light, language, and sound. An avid reader, Plensa frequently incorporates letters and words from various languages into his works, aiming to strengthen the bond between people from different cultures and create a sense of unity despite the physical borders that separate us.
A defining moment in Plensa’s career came with his 2004 public installation Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park, located near Anish Kapoor’s famed Cloud Gate. This interactive installation features a black granite reflecting pool set between two 15-meter-high glass towers, where LED screens display rotating video portraits of 1,000 Chicago residents. Periodically, the faces on the screens open their mouths, releasing streams of water into the pool below—a playful and engaging feature that invites children to cool off in the summer months.
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In April of this year, a monumental Plensa sculpture was installed at Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue in New York as part of the city’s Frieze art fair. The seven-and-a-half-meter-high piece, titled Behind the Walls, is crafted from marble and resin and depicts the white head of a child covering its eyes with both hands. The sculpture will remain on display until June 28, 2019.
