Jaume Plensa Jaume Plensa Biography

Yorkshire Sculpture Park RESOURCE FILE Jaume Plensa Jaume Plensa biography Jaume Plensa is a leading international sculptor, born in Barcelona in 1955. Since 1980, the year when he made himself known with his first exhibition in Barcelona, Plensa has worked across the world and currently resides between Barcelona and Paris. He has taught at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris and in The School of the Art Institute of Chicago during 2009-2010. Since 1992 Plensa has obtained various distinctions and awards, both national and international, notably his investiture as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture (1993), the National Award for Plastic Arts – National Culture Awards of the Government of Catalonia 1997, Barcelona, and an Honorary Doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA, 2005. His work has been exhibited in many of the world's leading contemporary art institutions in Europe, the United States and Japan including Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain; the Jeu de Paume, Paris, France; Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, Halifax, UK; BALTIC The Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK; the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; IVAM Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain; The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA and The Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, USA. Plensa’s career has progressed throughout various stages, involving innovative use of many different materials. In the early 1980s the central material of his work was wrought iron, making anthropomorphic shapes, often with recovered materials iron, bronze, and copper. In 1986 Plensa began a series of sculptures in cast iron, which he melted using the oldest technique of casting metals. His pioneering use of cast iron brought him international acclaim. Virtually abandoning all traces of figuration he began use incorporate light with iron to echo the intense colour of the material when molten. In 1988 Plensa first used text in relief: the piece Sleep No More quotes a line from Shakespear’s Matchbeth. This use of poetic text fixes and gives volume to intangible fragile ideas. Plensa continues to work with light and casting, although he has varied his materials, using aluminum, bronze, brass, glass, steel or resin according to the requirements of the work itself or the space. In recent years his casting materials have been synthetic resin, and glass with their mysterious translucency, in which he has developed a family of works thought of as ‘houses’ or containers for the soul that act as meditative spaces. Light, sound and text endow his current work a unique poetic sense of language. Plensa's work evokes emotion and stimulates intellectual engagement by posing conceptual dualities in his work (interior/exterior, volume/emptiness, light/dark), he seeks to connect with his viewers on an intuitive level and often it is their participation, or the object/viewer relationship, that completes his work. In parallel with his sculptural work and at the same level of importance, the artist has created an extensive body of drawings, which relate closely to his sculpture. These Collages of photographs, texts, superimpositions and image manipulation combine to give a sense that inevitably brings it close to sculpture. Another aspect of Plensa’s practice is his work on opera projects. Since 1995 he has collaborated on stage designs for theatre and opera productions including La Fura dels Baus: Atlantida (by Manuel de Falla) for the Granada Festival in 1996, Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien (by Claude Debussy) for the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in 1997, La Damnation de Faust (by Hector Berlioz) for the Salzburger Festspiele in 1999, Die Zauberflöte (by Mozart) for the Ruhr Triennale Bochum in 2003.; Le Château de Barbe-Bleue by Bela Bartok and Le Journal d’un Disparu by Leos Janacek, for the Opéra de Paris, co produced with the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 2007. A significant part of Plensa’s practice is producing work for the public realm and he has permanent works installed in Spain, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Germany, Canada, and USA. The Crown Fountain (2004) is one of Plensa’s largest public art projects in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Breathing (2005) for the new BBC building in London; Conversation à Nice (2007) for the place Masséna in Nice, France; El Alma del Ebro for the Expo Zaragoza 2008, in Zaragoza, Spain; Dream (2009) for St. Helens, Liverpool, UK; World Voices (2010) for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE. 2011 will also see Plensa’s first public art project in New York City. Echo will be presented from 5 May – 14 August 2011 by the Madison Square Park Conservancy. In the UK, Chichester Cathedral recently announced Plensa’s winning proposal for the Hussey Memorial Commission, Together, expected to be unveiled in the Cathedral in 2012. 1955 Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain Studied art in Barcelona, in the Llotja School and in the Escola Superior de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi. 1980 First solo show: Estructures at Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain. 1981 Produces his earliest work: Itinerari, a system of weights, lines, and pulleys strung together in open metal frames creating a complex interrelated network. 1982 Constructs his first glasswork: Llibre de Vidre, a glass book containing sixteen drawings and a poem by Toni Tapies. Mid 1980’s Leaves Spain to work and teach abroad in Berlin, Germany. The central feature of his work is wrought iron, largely working with recovered materials – iron, bronze, and copper. 1983 Exhibits at Ignacio de Lassaletta Gallery, Barcelona, Spain. 1984 Begins exhibiting internationally with his solo show: Skulturen at Galerie Folker Skulima, Berlin, Germany. 1985 Foundry experience of working with molten iron 1986 Begins working on a series of sculpture in cast iron, using the oldest technique of casting metals. First public commission at Placa Francesc Layret, Barcelona, Spain: Personatges, three anthropomorphic cast iron sculptures that sit on rocks. 1987 Exhibits extensively in Europe with solo and group exhibitions in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Austria. 1988 First exhibits in USA at the The Sharpe Gallery, New York. 1989 Produces Prière inspired by The Litanies of Satan by Baudelaire. 1990 Produces Dell’arte II, a public commission installed in Jardi d'Escultures at the Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain. 1991 Begins using light with cast iron in the works Desir and La Neige Rouge. Commissioned by the City of Auch and the Ministère de l'Education Nationale et de la Culture to produce the public sculpture: Auch, a fortress-like architectonical sculpture. First public sculpture to use light. 1992 Invited to participate in Olimpiada Cultural’92, outdoor sculptures exhibited around Barcelona to mark the 25th Olympic Games. Exhibits Born at the Passeig del Born, Barcelona, Spain. First solo show in the UK, at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland. Firenze I and Firenze II, which take the question mark as their point of departure. 1993 Awarded the winner of Medaille des Chevaliers des Arts et Lettres from France's Minister of Culture. Invited to the UK by the Henry Moore Institute. Creates his first work using water: The Personal Miraculous Fountain, exhibited at the Henry Moore Sculpture Studio, Halifax, UK. Micce-Prodigiosa Fontana Individuale: One-day performance selling bottle water as a miracle cure in the village of Nocera Umbra, Italy. 1994 The Personal Miraculous Fountain exhibition The Henry Moore Studio at Dean Clough, Halifax. Explores translucent materials and begins to work with resin. 1995 Towers and cabinets began to make a frequent appearance in his work. 1996 First public commission in the UK: Blake in Gateshed at the Baltic Centre of Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK. Began working with stage and costume design for Alex Ollé and Carlos Padrissa for La Fura dels Baus: Atlantida (by Manuel de Falla) for the Granada Festival, Spain. Residency award by the Atelier Calder Foundation to live for six months in the Alexander Calder's studio-house, UK. 1997 National Award for Plastic Arts – National Culture Awards of the Government of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain. His complete works were presented at the Fundacio Joan Miro in Barcelona, at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, in the Malmo Konsthall and in the Stadtischen Kunsthall in Mannheim. Creates his first piece with glass bricks: Wie ein Hauch 1998 The Personal Miraculous Fountain shown at Yorkshire Sculpture Park as part of Artranspenine 98. Love Sounds first shown at the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover. First uses sound by recording a soundtrack of his own bloodstream played inside five intimate alabaster cells. First uses cymbals in the installation Wispern, drops of water falls slowly from the ceiling onto the cymbal, causing a sound. 1999 Started to create delicate faces with magazine collages exhibited at Galerie Scheffel, Bad Homburg, Germany 2000 First public commission in the USA: El Corazón de las Palabras at the USA Today Headquarters, Mclean, Virginia. Public projects in Japan 2001 Exhibits his three-part floor work: Freud’s Children exhibited at Bethmannhof, Germany. Three vessels are connected by the drip of a pump that supplies and fills the different-sized vessels with water like a closed blood circulation. 2002 Public commission Bridge of Light opens in Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem, Israel 2003 Public commission Talking Continents opens at the Jacksonville Arena Plaza, Jacksonville, Florida, USA First addresses the idea of the tattoo on the body. Creates Tattoo, a sculpture coated in words and addressed the theme of being physically marked by personal events and experiences corresponding to the notion that everything we experience is directly engraved onto our bodies. Creates his first ceiling-hung curtain of cast metal letter: Silent Rain shown in the first USA traveling exhibition Silent Noise.

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