FACT SHEET

The New York Public Library
Bronx Library Center: Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle's Award-Winning Artwork Portrait of a Young Reader

A stunning feature of the Bronx Library Center is the award-winning Portrait of a Young Reader , 2006. This large-scale, site-specific installation by renowned contemporary artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle is a vividly-colored matrix of colored glass and perforated steel that dramatically depicts a young person's DNA sequence.

Imbedded in the wall and stairway leading from the ground floor to the concourse level of the library building, this scientifically accurate yet abstract DNA portrait uses state-of-the-art genomic technology to illustrate the genetic composition of an anonymous young reader and examine issues of identity, new technologies, and artistic expression.

Portrait of a Young Reader is a commission of The New York Public Library and The City of New York Cultural Affairs' Percent for Art Program. In July 2005, it was awarded one of the 23rd Annual Art Commission Awards for Excellence in Design by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle and Chicago-based architect Colin Franzen, who collaborated with Manglano-Ovalle on some of the project's structural aspects, were recognized for their artistic contributions.

The work forms an integral part of the Library Center's architecture. Measuring 17 feet high by 54 feet wide, it is comprised of over 17,000 pounds of steel and glass, including 71 laser-cut steel panels and over 3,000 colored glass circles. The abstractly-patterned glass, in shades of dark green, light green, orange, yellow, and red, dynamically activates the architectural space with color while accurately depicting the DNA information.

To create this artwork, the artist obtained anonymous DNA samples from genetics labs specializing in Microarray analysis. These samples were then randomly marked with numbers in order to differentiate them from one another without identifying individual donors. A single sample was blindly selected from the pool and sent to a lab for DNA analysis. This analysis ultimately provided all of the visual information necessary to produce the large-scale artwork. In effect, the resulting DNA portrait is of an unknown young reader. The pattern and colors in the artwork are derived from the Microarray analysis of the donor's DNA. This analysis generated more than 25,000 genetic markers, a small part of the individual's total genetic make-up. The markers were then printed on a small glass slide as droplets of nucleotides A, G, C, and T, the basic units of DNA. The original Microarray slide is on view as part of the artwork.

As Manglano-Ovalle stated, "DNA is a code and catalogue of information from which we each are individually and uniquely expressed. It is a library with volumes of possible outcomes and potential creativity, stories written and to be written, information to be unlocked, accessed and disseminated. Like an author, DNA writes itself in order to be read and like a reader, DNA reads in order to write itself anew, repeating this process on an infinite and variable scale. The Portrait of a Young Reader functions as both information and expression, and it stands for all of those who read in order to know ourselves better."

About the Artist
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle was born in 1961 in Madrid, and raised in Madrid, Bogota, and Chicago.   He received B.A. degrees in art and art history and Latin American and Spanish literature from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and an M.F.A. in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His early work included collaborations with urban communities and resulted in the founding of Street-Level Youth Media, a community arts organization for Chicago youth. He has worked in a variety of media including sculpture, film, sound, and photography.

Manglano-Ovalle has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Instituto Cultural Cabañas in Guadalajara, Mexico, Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus Ohio, Barcelona Pavilion and Sala de Exposiciones de la fundacion la Caixa in Madrid, among others. He has been included in such group exhibitions as the Bienal de São Paulo , 1998, Best of the Season , 1999, at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut, the 2000 Whitney Biennial , and Moving Pictures at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao 2002 and 2003.   He is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship, the Media Arts Award from the Wexner Center for the Arts and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Manglano-Ovalle currently lives and works in Chicago where he is an Associate Professor, School of Art and Design, in the College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

This building was generously funded by The State of New York: George E. Pataki, Governor; Charles A. Gargano, Chairman, Empire State Development Corporation; the New York State Assembly and Assemblyman José Rivera; and The City of New York: Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor; Christine C. Quinn, City Council Speaker; Adolfo Carrión, Jr., Bronx Borough President; the Bronx City Council Delegation and City Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera.

A major grant from Roger and Susan Hertog provided lead private support for the Bronx Library Center. Support for cultural programming was provided by a generous grant from Bank of America, with additional funding from the New York Community Trust.

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Contact:    Gayle Snible   212.704.8600

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