Jaume Plensa

Working in many different types of media, Spanish artist Jaume Plensa has garnered much international attention and critical acclaim for his outdoor sculptures on display in countries around the world. His sculpture Crown Fountain, in Millennium Park in Chicago, is now one of the city’s landmarks.

Plensa is primarily a figurative artist, often using ideas about language, communication, and connection in his sculptures and installations. The human face is the subject of his sculpture Utopia, inside the Garden Pavilion in the Welcome Center. Each wall of the expansive room is completely filled by a different face. The figures wear a calm, meditative expression and have diverse ethnic facial features. The faces are universal symbols of the beauty inherent in humanity. This work is specifically commissioned for the Garden Pavilion and is Plensa's largest indoor work to date.