Within one week, two cities, two exhibitions. Jaume Plensa did not fly back and forth—he simply let silence arrive first. GRAY Gallery’s Chicago and New York spaces were filled with Plensa’s works almost within the same week. Chicago’s Beyond Silence opened on September 17, and New York’s Remote, Serene, Ethereal followed on September 23. The works in the two exhibitions differ, but they share the same core: the human figure, and how scale and material redefine the distance between us and sculpture.
Chicago is larger in volume. Two monumental wood reliefs, Beyond Silence (Julia) and Beyond Silence (Maria), each 28 feet (approximately 8.5 meters) long, span the gallery space and echo the building’s own wooden truss structure. Plensa pushes the human figure to the boundary of architectural scale—standing before them, viewers no longer see a face, but a wall. Juxtaposed with them are three works from the new Clouds series, each 7 feet (approximately 2.1 meters) tall. The industrial roughness of cast iron contrasts with the smooth surface of granite, producing an unexpected sense of suspension and weightlessness. At the center of the exhibition are small bronze sculptures from the Twilight series, each approximately 20 inches (about 51 cm) tall, pulling the viewing experience from architectural scale back to personal scale and inviting a more intimate gaze.
New York’s exhibition is more restrained but adds a layer of site-specificity. Three elongated painted bronze portraits—Remote (Yolandita), Serene (Ita), and Ethereal (Martina)—each stand over 2 meters tall. The tension between their titles is precisely the enduring proposition in Plensa’s work: the gap between the universal and the individual. The subjects of these portraits come from specific people in his Barcelona community, but when they are elongated and enlarged to monumental scale, the individual faces recede into a more universal collective human image. Surrounding these three sculptures are charcoal portraits that Plensa drew directly on the gallery walls—an improvised, site-specific drawing practice that serves as a two-dimensional echo of the three-dimensional sculptures, enveloping the viewer.
Both exhibitions continue until December 19. Chicago’s Beyond Silence is Plensa’s tenth solo exhibition at GRAY Gallery; since his first exhibition in the Chicago space in 1996, this collaboration has lasted thirty years. New York’s Remote, Serene, Ethereal is jointly presented by GRAY and Galerie Lelong, while another solo exhibition by Plensa, Invisible, is concurrently on view at the Museum Küppersmühle in Duisburg, Germany.
From the 28-foot wood sculptures in Chicago to the charcoal wall drawings in New York, Plensa demonstrates within a single week how many “scales” a sculptor can possess—architectural, personal, and everything in between. And the endpoint of all these scales is the same quiet question: to what extent can a person be enlarged and still remain a person?
FAQ
Q: What are the dates and locations of the two exhibitions?
A: Chicago’s Beyond Silence opened on September 17, 2026, at GRAY Gallery’s Chicago space; New York’s Remote, Serene, Ethereal opened on September 23 at GRAY Gallery’s New York space. Both exhibitions continue until December 19.
Q: What are the largest works in the Chicago exhibition?
A: Two monumental wood reliefs, Beyond Silence (Julia) and Beyond Silence (Maria), each 28 feet (approximately 8.5 meters) long, spanning the gallery space.
Source: Instagram@richardgraygallery
