Lifetime Achievement Award for Spanish Sculptor Jaume Plensa
Jaume Plensa in his studio, 2024. Courtesy Galerie Lelong. Photo: © Inés Baucells.
Jaume Plensa has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center for his ‘exemplary contributions’ to sculpture through his catalogue of public installations.
Plensa was recognised at an onsite ceremony in New Jersey on 16 April for a body of work that has ’[unified] individuals through connections of spirituality, the body, and collective memory’ for the past 35 years.
Alongside fellow recipient Albert Paley, the award identifies the Barcelona-born artist as a master of sculptural processes and techniques who has advanced the field.
Plensa is known for large-scale installations resembling humans which often appear ethereal despite their size, with hollowed interiors and shells built from linguistic or mathematical symbols made from materials like steel mesh and translucent resin.
His installations have been commissioned for sites around the world, including The Shard in London; Hudson Yards, New York; Millennium Park, Chicago; Olympic Sculpture Park, Washington; Burj Khalifa, United Arab Emirates; and Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida.
Past recipients include Petah Coyne (2024), Melvin Edwards (2023), John Henry (2023), Barbara Chase-Riboud (2022), Deborah Butterfield (2022), Jun Kaneko (2021), James Surls (2020), and Red Grooms and Seward Johnson (2019). —[O]
Main image: Jaume Plensa in his studio, 2024. Courtesy Galerie Lelong. Photo: © Inés Baucells.
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