During the summer, many people have been able to view the 7 meter high cast iron portraits located along Djurgårdsbrunnskanalen, along with the white silhouette placed in the water itself. Autumn season at Galleri Andersson/Sandström begins with an extensive exhibition where you will be able to further take part in Plensa’s multifaceted work. Plensa has become one of today’s most significant sculptors and his works are found all over the world.

The exhibition presents seven new works. The sculptures are characteristic of Plensa and some of the works could be related to the slightly elongated, elliptical facial sculptures we recognize from the Royal Djurgården. The silhouettes of the young girls, all with their eyes closed, have a timeless and historical expression, at the same time they radiate a meditative calm. Plensa is keen to encourage to contemplate, reflect and look inward rather than instinctively respond to the visual noise that constantly meets us and which we usually choose to confront.

Our body is the home of the spirit. The place in which ideas live. Our body is a meeting place where our different experiences converge, mix and grow, creating a colossal archive. The University is an extension of our body. A gathering space in which people and ideas, tradition and future, meet to converse, weaving the mesh of human knowledge. Taking the shape of a human body made out of essential vehicle of communication, the fundamental tools.
– Jaume Plensa

Plensa’s works often includes literary references and here he embodies the text, lifts and releases it from the paper and transforms it from two to three dimensions so that we can see the letters from every angle. In his sculpture S.T. letters are used as building blocks in the creation of a seated human figure. The visitor will meet a similar concept in the suggestive installation Talking Continents III, where alphabetical characters appears on oval stone-like shapes, floating in mid-air, in a large dark room. The letters in stainless steel shine in the directed lighting from the ceiling and a graceful play of shadows appear on the floor. Both works indicates the inherent power and weakness of letters. Alone they mean nothing but together as a text it’s one of man’s most powerful tools.

Letters is the most wonderful creation people have made.Letters enable us to put together words, sentences, write and talk.- Jaume Plensa

Plensa’s work asks questions and sets up situations that encourage us to think and think again, to be silent and meditative, to talk with one another and experience togetherness. The artist is keen to encourage communication and understanding with others and ourselves, producing work with the hope of reconnecting us with our own souls. His sculptural work has, with time, undergone several changes, but has always been dealing with humanity, body and soul, in mostly figurative expressions.