Born in 1955 in Barcelona, Jaume Plensa studied at the Llotja School of Art and Design and at the Sant Jordi School of Fine Art. He has worked on a wide range of public art projects worldwide and is perhaps best known in the United States for his Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park (2004). In 2014, he returned to Chicago to do a solo exhibition for Millennium Park, titled 1004 Portraits, which expanded upon his 1,000 LED portraits of Chicago residents from the Crown Fountain through the installation of four monumental cast-iron portraits of young girls. Inés was one of the four sculptures included in 1004 Portraits at Millennium Park. Her portrait, in the artist’s words, is “all at once specific, anonymous, universal, and tranquil.” Shown with her eyes closed in a state of meditation or dreaming, her serene expression inspires contemplation. Like a hologram, the sculpture changes and shifts perspectives when viewed from different angles.
Plensa has received numerous national and international distinctions, including the Medaille de Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture, in 1993. In 2009, he won the Mash Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture for his work Dream. In Spain, he received the National Prize for Fine Art in 2012 and the prestigious Velázquez Prize for the Arts in 2013. He is represented by Richard Gray Gallery. Inés was on loan to Harvard Business School from the Richard Gray Gallery as part of the Contemporary Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition from 2016 to 2018. In Spring 2018, through the support of an anonymous donor, HBS acquired the sculpture for its permanent collection and it is on view on Aldrich Lawn.
