JAUME PLENSA, SHO
The Merchandise Mart, Art Chicago
April 2008
Organized by Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, USA
Constructed in painted stainless steel, the image describes a young female head in colossal terms. At once youthful and majestic, Plensa has defined a visage that is both timeless and of its time. The complicated, corporeal terrain, which defines the work, results from intersecting lines that clearly relate to forms of digital scanning one might associate with medical and scientific fields. Yet, for this connection to the contemporary, Sho seems an ancient survivor or perhaps the ghost of lost age. To some the cage-like appearance of the intersecting lines might be noteworthy, but this is not a work that contains. It releases in equal if not greater terms. Bathed in white, the ethereal experienced through In the Midst of Dreams is matched. The connection to the pure, to the spiritual, is profound.
Joseph Antenucci Becherer
Director of Exhibitions and Curator of Sculpture, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
Lena Meijer Professor in the History of Art, Aquinas College
From the catalogue of Jaume Plensa exhibition at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan, October 2008
