Spanish sculptors
In good hands
With a masterful skill for working materials, applying avant-garde techniques and creating discourses, Spanish sculptors inspire and move people both within and beyond our borders. Cities like Madrid, Barcelona or San Sebastián, but also New York, London, or Düsseldorf host their works. The younger generation is complemented by and is in conversation with the previous generation, moulding a vibrant present and a promising future.
During the 20th century, Spanish sculpture went through a golden age thanks to universal artists like Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, or Joan Miró, but also the well-known Basque school, Escuela Vasca, with representatives like Jorge Oteiza or Eduardo Chillida, without forgetting leading figures like Martín Chirino, Josep María Subirats, or Juan Muñoz, who died young. It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of these masters, but Spanish sculptural talent still stands out thanks to a series of names that we’re going to introduce shortly. From young stars who take the prestigious Venice Biennale by storm to renowned talents who have installed their sculptures in cities around the world. Artists who transform materials to create captivating pieces, whether because of their intrinsic beauty, their boundless imagination, or their brave discourse. As well as the usual materials like metal, stone, wood, or fabric, other new materials, like plastic, concrete or resin, are also being used. Also, figurative art has given way to abstraction and classic techniques coexist with avant-garde methods to illuminate works that emotionally call on the audience, as will be seen at ARCOmadrid, an event sponsored by Iberia.
Jaume Plensa
The sculptures by Jaume Plensa, one of the most relevant Spanish artists today, can be found in dozens of cities, and the world around them seems to calm down, even quiet down. Pieces like Julia in Madrid, Crown Fountain in Chicago, Le Nomade in Antibes, Carmela in Barcelona, or Water’s Soul in New Jersey are good examples of this particular power. His trajectory won him the National Award for Plastic Arts in 2012 and the Velázquez Award for Plastic Arts in 2013.
Teresa Solar
The name Teresa Solar rings a bell, both nationally and internationally. Her participation in the 2022 Venice Biennale, the biggest contemporary art event worldwide, was a turning point. There, her sculptures with sinuous shapes and a careful use of colour received unanimous applause. Then she presented her project Birth of Islands at the High Line in New York. This 2025, her sculptures, made of clay and resin, will land in Turin, Mexico City, and Hamburg.
David Rodríguez Caballero
The pure lines of the sculptures created by David Rodríguez Caballero establish a unique relationship with light and movement. Elegant and ethereal, his works have been exhibited around the world. Brass, bronze, copper, or aluminium are some of the materials this metal alchemist works with. Despite his close connection to New York, a city where he spent two key phases of his life, his inspiration is multicultural and spans from Japanese origami to African masks.
June Crespo
Vascular, the individual exhibition June Crespo presented at the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum in 2024, was a big milestone for this artist. Her sculptures establish a modern dialogue with Basque art, adding a feminist and environmentalist consciousness. With materials extracted from the current production system, like wood, fabrics or plaster casts, she creates pieces reminiscent of found art [made with objects that are not normally considered materials from which art is made]. Her work, like Teresa Solar’s, was present at the 2022 Venice Biennale.
Manolo Valdés
Manolo Valdés is the only remaining founder of the iconic Equipo Crónica, an art collective that combined pop art and social critique during the final years of the Franco regime. Already in 1983, at just 41 years of age, he received the National Award for Plastic Arts. In 1989, he set up his own studio in New York and started experimenting with new forms of expression, like sculpture. His Meninas—a reinterpretation of Las Meninas by Velázquez—have turned into an icon and have transcended borders.
Blanca Muñoz
Artist Blanca Muñoz started exploring engraving until she became a role model: she won the National Award for Graphic Arts in 1999. Her engravings tended towards three dimensions and her arrival to sculpture, using materials like steel and perforated sheet metal, was a question of time. Her monumental sculptures are present in public spaces in cities across Spain, especially Madrid, where you just need to take a stroll around the new Plaza de España.
Cristóbal Gabarrón
If you walk around Central Park in New York, you can find a sculpture by Cristóbal Gabarrón, specifically a piece that commemorating the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. First a painter and then a sculptor, although also an engraver and a muralist, his versatile career has turned him into a leading creator. Through his foundation, The Gabarron Foundation—based in New York—, he promotes culture in general and contemporary art in particular.
Cristina Iglesias
Born in San Sebastián, nature and the sea have been a constant inspiration for Cristina Iglesias. Proof of this is one of her most recent and ambitious pieces: Hondalea, a bronze sculpture excavated inside the hollowed-out lighthouse keeper’s house on the Santa Clara island, in the centre of La Concha bay. Another constant in her work has been her relationship with architecture, to the point of receiving the Royal Academy Architecture Prize in 2020 in London. A recognition that goes with her National Award for Plastic Arts (1999).
If you want to get to know more Spanish sculptors, below is a list of names worth following: Susana Solano, Manolo Paz, Laia Estruch, Francisco Leiro, Camil Bofill, Esther Gatón, Juan Garaizabal, Kiko Miyares, María Luisa Fernández, Karlos Gil, Costa Badía, Diego Canogar, Mar Solís, Carlos Fernández-Pello, Manuel Quintana, Guillermo Pérez Villalta, Okuda, Beatriz Díaz Ceballos, Christian G. Bello, Txomin Badiola, Eva Lootz, José Ramón Anda, Miquel Navarro, Alicia Martín Villanueva, and Ángel Bados. Let’s get cracking?
