Jaume Plensa facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jaume Plensa Escultor Jaume Plensa
Jaume Plensa (December 2015)
Born	(1955-08-23) August 23, 1955 (age 69) Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Education	Llotja School
Alma mater	Escola Superior de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi
Notable work	Crown Fountain Blake in Gateshead Dream
Awards	Medaille des Chevaliers des Arts et Lettres Investit Doctor Honoris Causa Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture (2009) National Award for Plastic Arts (2012)

Jaume Plensa is a famous Spanish artist born on August 23, 1955. He is known for making amazing sculptures, but he also designs opera sets, video shows, and sound art. He is from Catalonia, a region in Spain.

About Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. He started studying art there but decided to learn on his own instead. He became a very talented artist through his own hard work and practice.

Famous Artworks

Jaume Plensa has created many incredible public artworks around the world. His sculptures often feature human figures, faces, and letters.

Crown Fountain

One of Plensa's most famous works is the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. It opened in July 2004. This fountain has a black granite pool between two tall towers made of glass bricks. The towers are about 15 meters (50 feet) tall. They use LED lights to show digital videos of people's faces. It's like the faces are spitting water from their mouths!

Dream Sculpture

In 2007, Plensa was asked to create a new artwork near St Helens, Merseyside, England. This area used to be a coal mine. Working with former miners, he created Dream, which was unveiled in 2009. This huge white sculpture is 20 meters (66 feet) tall and weighs 500 tons. It looks like the head and neck of a young woman with her eyes closed, deep in thought. The sculpture is covered in sparkling white Spanish dolomite rock. This white color is a strong contrast to the black coal that was once mined there.

Breathing Memorial

On June 16, 2008, Plensa's sculpture called Breathing was dedicated in London. It is a memorial to journalists who have lost their lives while doing their work. The sculpture is made of steel and glass. It sits on top of a new part of Broadcasting House, which is home to the BBC. Every evening at 10 PM GMT, a beam of light shines from the sculpture. It goes 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) into the sky for 30 minutes, at the same time as the BBC News.

Alchemist Sculpture

In 2010, Plensa's sculpture Alchemist was placed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's a large, hollow figure of a person sitting down. What makes it special is that it's made up of numbers and mathematical symbols. This design honors MIT's focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Water's Soul

Water's Soul (2021) is a sculpture located along the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway in Jersey City. This artwork features a giant, serene face with closed eyes, appearing to be in deep thought or meditation. It connects people with the water and the environment around them.

Other Notable Works

• Blake in Gateshead is a laser beam artwork in North East England. On special occasions, it shines high into the night sky over the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.
• El alma del Ebro (The Soul of the Ebro) was made for an exhibition in Zaragoza, Spain, about water. It's 11 meters (36 feet) tall and made of sculpted letters that represent human body cells, which are mostly water.
• Singapore Soul (2011) is a similar sculpture in front of the Ocean Financial Centre in Singapore.
• I, You, She, He... is a group of three figures made of letters, sitting on large rocks at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• In 2011, his work Echo was shown in Madison Square Park in Manhattan, New York.
• Laura (2012) is a 20-foot-tall sculpture made of 20 large marble pieces. It is located at the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.
• Ainsa I (2013) is a sculpture at Washington University in St. Louis.
• Love (2017) was installed in Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
• Dreaming (2020) is outside the Richmond-Adelaide Centre in Toronto.
• Behind the Walls (2020) is outside the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
• Utopia (2021) is Plensa's largest indoor work. It features four huge carved marble portraits of faces, located at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Awards and Recognition

Jaume Plensa has received many important awards for his art:

• 1993: Medaille des Chevaliers des Arts et Lettres from the French Minister of Culture.
• 1997: National Award of Arts from the Government of Catalonia.
• 2005: He was given an honorary doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
• 2009: Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture.
• 2012: Creu de Sant Jordi Award and the National Award for Plastic Arts.
• 2013: Premio Velázquez de Artes Plásticas.

In 2019, the MACBA Museum in Barcelona held a big exhibition of his work. This show later traveled to the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

Gallery

See also

In Spanish: Jaume Plensa para niños

• Looking Into My Dreams, Awilda
• Tolerance (sculpture), Houston, Texas (2011)