PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG READER 2006

Permanent installation of a steel and colored glass relief sculpture based on DNA fingerprint for the New York Public Library, NYC, USA

Awards: 1st Prize, The City of New York Design Excellence Award

Portrait of a Young Reader is a large-scale exploration of DNA as a code, a catalogue, and a library—a vast archive of information waiting to be unlocked and stories yet to be written. Installed across the entrance walls of the new Bronx Library Center, the work is a DNA portrait rendered at architectural scale, created using advanced scientific technology to capture the genetic expression of a single individual.

The glass and steel wall relief sculpture consists of approximately 3,000 colored glass cylinders, each three inches in diameter, cut at varying lengths and mounted on a perforated metal backing. The pattern and color palette of the installation were determined by Microarray—an advanced DNA sampling technique—using seven colors: black, red, orange, yellow, dark green, green, and light green. The combination of differing cylinder depths and the randomized Microarray pattern transforms the data into a topographical landscape, presenting precise scientific information in a visually abstract, poetic form.

More than a standalone artwork, the portrait is deeply embedded—literally—into the library’s architecture. Its scale and form were tailored to fit the architect’s design and physically integrated into the building’s structure. In addition to the main installation, which spans the central staircase and surrounding walls, Manglano-Ovalle also displays the original DNA sample of the anonymous young reader along with information about the project near the top of the stairs.