JAUME PLENSA beyond La Pedrera

Currently, the work of Catalan sculptor Jaume Plensa can be seen in numerous venues around the world, including the exhibition at La Pedrera in Barcelona from March 31st through July 23rd, 2023. However, beyond this exhibition, Plensa‘s work is diverse and complex, and deserves an in-depth review. In this article, we want to explore his work beyond his current exhibition in Barcelona, and highlight his time in our gallery over the years.

From March 31st, at La Pedrera, you will be able to discover the most intimate and unknown Plensa in an exhibition that, for the first time, reveals the influence that literature, language and the alphabet have had on his work.

Image of a metal sculpture being lifted by crane to La Pedrera

Installation of Jaume Plensa’s work at La Pedrera

This exhibition is a unique opportunity to delve into the most particular work of this internationally renowned sculptor. With a career spanning from the late twentieth century to the present, Jaume Plensa has stood out for his work on the human figure, where he often fuses matter, words and music in a constant dialogue. This exhibition, curated by Javier Molins, will show some of the artist’s most representative pieces, as well as his evolution over the years.

Image of people photographing a metal sculpture picked up by a crane

Jaume Plensa during the installation of his work at La Pedrera

From Galeria SENDA, having exhibited the sculptor’s work on more than one occasion, we are thrilled that the city of Barcelona receives it in such an honorable way. It makes us especially excited to remember his passage through the gallery, which never goes unnoticed.

At the end of 2016, Jaume Plensa held his first exhibition at Galeria SENDA: «El Bosc Blanc», after 7 years without exhibiting in Barcelona, his hometown. Plensa presented a work that confronted what is shown with what is hidden, the past with the future, the natural construction with the creation by the hand of man, and the sound vibration with silence.

Gallery view, 2016

Gallery view, 2016

The exhibition consisted of various sculptures of young, female faces representing individuality within the social collectivity. The white pieces, “Lou“, “Duna” and “Isabella“, seemed to float on the floor and were complemented by graphite drawings on the wall. Plensa sought for the viewer to connect with the pieces and find their own path through the works placed in the space.

For more information, you can listen to this explanatory video of the artist:

At the end of 2020, he returned to present a new exhibition «La Llarga Nit» at Galeria SENDA, in which he praised the mysterious time of the night, capable of inspiring the soul of poets. The works in the exhibition presented sleeping and silent figures, with a lyrical and contemplative dimension. Plensa suggests that, by having to stop the machinery of doing, humanity is putting into function the machinery of thinking, generating new ways of living in the world. The exhibition included suspended sculptures, works on paper, among other works.

Photograph of an art gallery displaying a sculpture and a painting
Photograph of an art gallery where a bust sculpture is exhibited

Gallery view, 2020

Gallery view, 2020

In addition, beyond the exhibitions, Plensa accompanied us on two occasions last year. The first time he participated with Javier Molins in a talk that took place at the gallery on the occasion of the presentation of the book “Artists in the Nazi camps”. In this talk, Plensa and Molins shared their reflections on the work of artists who were victims of the Holocaust and its importance in the history of art. The second occasion was also in 2022, when he participated in another talk together with photographer Jean-Marie del Moral and journalist Màrius Carol during the presentation of the book «Interior, 2022» by By Publications. In this #SENDATalks, they shared their experiences and reflections on art and creativity in today’s world.

However, even further back in time, in 2017, German sculptor Stephan Balkenhol and Jaume Plensa met on the gallery’s mezzanine to talk about «Sculptures and Public Space» in a dialogue about their trajectory and their interest in promoting sculpture as a value for society and culture.

We are grateful to have been able to witness Plensa‘s unwavering commitment to contemporary art and the opportunity to present his work in a gallery in his own city.


If you are interested in learning about the available pieces by Jaume Plensa, do not hesitate to contact us by email senda@galeriasenda.com or at our SHOP online:

Galeria SENDA at Art Brussels 2022

28.04 – 01.05.22, Tour & Taxis | Booth A50

With great excitement and enthusiasm, this year we are pleased to announce the twentieth participation of Galeria SENDA in the prestigious contemporary art fair Art Brussels, which will take place from April 28th to May 1st, 2022. For this special edition, we have carefully prepared a selection of artists that represent the plastic, sculptural and compositional quality of a small sample of the talent of those who are part of the SENDA family.

In our stand at Art Brussels you will find works by renowned artists exhibited at SENDA such as Jaume Plensa and his conceptual brutality represented in “Who Are You? V”; Peter Halley and his lively use of colors in his large geometric paintings; Yago Hortal and the grandeur of his canvases such as “Z53”; Stephan Balkenhol with his huge sculptural figures; Iran do Espírito Santo and his audacious way of turning contradiction into a tangible thing as with his sculpture “Black Light”; Glenda León with her reinterpretation of the lunar cycle in “Listening to the Moon”; Túlio Pinto and his sculptures created from the fusion of materials; Sandra Vásquez de la Horra with her universe of fantastic figures that invite reflection on incendiary themes of the society in which we live; Gino Rubert with his farewells and reunions charged with symbolism; Xavi Bou and the wonderful chrono-photographic work captured in “Ornithographies“; Anthony Goicolea with his portraits where he explores human identity related to social issues such as migration; Donald Sultan and the reinvention of still lifes with works such as “Winter Mimosa Jan 28”; or the evocative photographs of Jordi Bernadó such as “New York (OS 276. 2)”. All this and much more is what anyone who attends the Art Brussels Week and passes by the stand A50 of Galeria SENDA will be able to find.

This amalgam of artistic projects demonstrates the solid gallery proposal of SENDA, betting on the dissemination of both national and international art. Likewise, the variety of techniques and disciplines is key to understand the idiosyncrasy of our gallery. Without the presence of this generous amount of projects so different from each other, fairs like Art Brussels would not make sense. For all this, if after getting to know the wide range of artists that will accompany SENDA in Brussels, you want to live an immersive experience and immerse yourself in the busy and vivid world of the fairs, you can find us at stand A50, in the Tour & Taxis building of the Belgian capital.

Obra abstracta d'uns peus que obren un portal de colors
Representació de la fase lunar
Pintura abstracta amb pinzellades rosades i ataronjades sobre fons negre

Portal, 2022
Sandra VÁSQUEZ DE LA HORRA
Grafit, watercolour and gouache on wax-plated paper
76 × 56 cm

Escuchando la Luna, 2020
Glenda LEÓN
Cow’s skin and wood
50 × 200 × 10 cm

Z51, 2022
Yago HORTAL
Acrylic in cloth
230 × 190 cm

Imatge d'un estand de fira amb pintures i escultures d'art contemporani

Booth A50 – Galeria SENDA

Galeria SENDA at Art Brussels 2021

03.06 – 06.06.21, Tour & Taxis

Black, white and red abstract polka dot painting

Donald Sultan. Autumn Mimosa (Feb, 2018)
Enamel, latex, graphite and tar on masonite. 122 x 244 cm

From June 3rd to 6th, Galeria SENDA presents a group exhibition at Art Brussels, one of the most renowned contemporary art fairs in Europe and an unmissable event on the international art calendar. Art Brussels is the ideal opportunity to discover the artistic and cultural richness of the art and cultural scene of the European capital, attracting a considerable number of collectors, curators, gallery owners, art professionals and art lovers from all over the world. Each year, the fair welcomes around 25,000 visitors to the emblematic Tour & Taxis building in the heart of the Belgian capital.

Instead of the usual format, this year the Belgian fair will offer a new edition: the Art Brussels week will feature Viewing Rooms, i.e. online exhibitions, from June 2nd to 14th and will also present physical gallery tours from June 3rd to 6th. For those unfamiliar with the term “viewing room,” this is a digital system that allows viewers to explore and examine works of art, either through high-quality images, videos or detailed descriptions. These viewing rooms are often used at art fairs and galleries as a way to show works of art to those who cannot physically attend the place where the works are exhibited. Through the “viewing rooms” visitors can, apart from appreciating the pieces, obtain information about them and the artists and even contact the gallery to make inquiries or purchases. All you need is an Internet connection and a great desire to enter into this extrasensory experience of online visits.

Painting of a racialized person lying on an orange float floating in dark water

Anthony Goicolea. Inflatable Pieta.
Oil on raw linen canvas. 90 x 130 cm

This year, for the physical gallery tour, SENDA invites the public to visit our current exhibition: “Day and night: New paintings and drawings” by Donald Sultan. Sultan is a contemporary painter, sculptor and printmaker known for his large-scale paintings, which explore the dichotomies between beauty and rudeness and realism and abstraction through the construction of a particular imaginary rich in color and form. With the fusion of techniques and materials, Sultan manages to build works that dance between the representation of images directly recognizable in the collective imagination and the purest abstraction. A great example of this mix of concepts is his ability to reinvent a technique as old as still life, using images of lemons, poppies, fruits, flowers and everyday objects, which give a breath of fresh air to the grandeur of his compositions.

The online exhibition continues to present our selected artists in the Viewing Room so that the shows can reach many more people. The artists chosen to represent our gallery in Brussels are Peter Halley, Jaume Plensa, Yago Hortal, Anthony Goicolea, Jordi Bernadó, Oleg Dou, Glenda León, Stephan Balkenhol, Gino Rubert and Evru Zush. The exhibition includes painting, photography, sculpture and drawings to create a constellation of works representing multiple techniques and artistic expressions. The wide variety of artistic proposals for this art week in Brussels aims to extol the most significant attributes of our gallery, advocating a brutal combination that perfectly represents the exquisiteness of the contemporary art that SENDA is committed to exhibit.

Do not miss this unique artistic encounter where works from different corners of the world converge for a few days in Brussels to be appreciated by a wide range of attendees and art lovers, in a unique cultural experience.