Jaume Plensa

The Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa (1955) is renowned worldwide for his towering sculptures of women's heads in public spaces. They have their eyes closed and offer an almost meditative appearance. The characteristic atmosphere of contemplation and introspection was beautifully expressed in Plensa's much-acclaimed exhibition at the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore during the Venice Biennale in 2015.

Plensa has completed more than thirty major projects in cities such as Chicago, Dubai, London, Liverpool, Nice, Tokyo, Toronto, and Vancouver. An absolute highlight in his extensive oeuvre is the Crown Fountain in Chicago's Millennium Park, which features the faces of hundreds of residents. In 2015, his work Duna was showcased as part of the Art Zuid route. His monumental work Love, one of the eleven fountains for Leeuwarden Cultural Capital 2018, has also become famous. Plensa has received many awards, including the Medaille de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, the Velázquez Prize for the Arts in 2013, and in 2017 The Ten-Year Award to the Crown Fountain for Excellence in Architecture. His sculptures are displayed worldwide in public spaces and museums, but have rarely been seen in the Netherlands.

Artist Jaume Plensa: ‘I am delighted that museum Beelden aan Zee wants to celebrate its 25-year anniversary with an exhibition about my work. The museum founders bought one of my earliest sculptures from the 80’s and have followed my career since then, so it will be a beautiful reencounter.’

As a young artist, Plensa was discovered by the collector couple Scholten-Miltenburg, who founded the museum Beelden aan Zee (BAZ) in Scheveningen in 1994. Now that this museum is celebrating its 25th anniversary, Plensa has agreed to make his Dutch debut at BAZ. The catalog accompanying this exhibition describes Plensa's versatile work from the past quarter-century. Authors include art critic Anna Tilroe, curator of the Eleven Fountain project, and Jean-Louis Andral, director of the Musée Picasso in Antibes.