JAUME PLENSA: I IN HIS EYES AS ONE THAT FOUND PEACE
New York : February 15 - March 17, 2007
Chicago : October 26, 2006 - December 1, 2006

Richard Gray Gallery presents the exhibition Jaume Plensa: I in his eyes as one that found peace, February 15 - March 17, 2007. An opening reception for the artist will be held on Friday, February 23, from 6:00pm - 8:00pm. The exhibition originated at Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago, October - December 2006.

In the artist's first North American exhibition to focus primarily on drawings, Barcelona based sculptor Jaume Plensa re-examines both the medium of drawing itself and the concept of self portraiture. In a career that spans over 25 years, Jaume Plensa, creator of the Crown Fountain in Chicago's Millennium Park, has been the subject of solo museum and gallery exhibitions in France, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, Venezuela, Sweden, Argentina, Israel, the Netherlands and the United States. His work was last seen in Chicago in 2004, where his exhibition Silent Rain was held at The Arts Club of Chicago.

While Plensa calls these works drawings, his "Self-Portraits" layer digitally manipulated photographs appropriated from 19th century ethnographic journals with semi transparent, embossed vellum sheets and fragments of block letter text from Shakespeare's tragic play Macbeth. Finally, black enamel then drips down around the archetypal faces, and intertwines with the text. The elements thus layered express some of the nuances of the artist's complex self image. They also explore issues of oneness across ethnic divides, acknowledging our deep connection to each other and examining some of the darker qualities of humanity such as betrayal, the lust for power, and greed so forcefully illuminated in Macbeth.