Wall Street Journal, Greater New York, Friday, May 14, 2010
By Pia Catton
Some new residents of the Upper West Side are already creating a stir.
A series of 16 bronze sculptures by Spanish contemporary artist Manolo Valdé’s has been installed at 12 locations along the Broadway mall between Columbus Circle and 166th Street.
Mr. Valdés, who lives and works in New York and Madrid, combines disparate influences, such as pop imagery and classical painting, into his large-scale works. Six of the bronzes on view are 12-foot-tall abstract female heads with elaborate head pieces. Another series of six sculptures are in homage to the painter Diego Velázquez and his depictions of Queen Mariana, an 18th-century Spanish royal. They stand 8 feet tall and weigh 2,000 pounds.