Born: 1955 (Barcelona, Spain)


Catalan artist Jaume Plensa's multi-faceted creations — which range from public sculptures, installations and drawings, to set and costume design — provoke viewer's sensations, memory and emotions using key elements of psychology, biology, language and history. "In my work," says the world-renowned Plensa, "I like to transform the body's energy into an object." His quest is perhaps best expressed in his most famous work to date: the Crown Fountain at the Millennium Park in Chicago. A set of 50ft glass towers with time-release water and video elements, it's design showers the senses both physically and metaphysically. His most recent work on display at the Galerie Lelong NY explores similar realms of interactivity and duality. Titled 'Song and Shadows,' the installation gives presence to what is absent and permanence to what is ephemeral by transforming language into a complex web of steel. The work's centerpiece is a series of 19 suspended curtains of thin steel letters of provocative, poetic prose—by exploring their dimensions, the personal, spiritual realm of language manifests physically.