A large-format publication documenting a body of sculptural works in glass and mixed media created in 2020-21 by internationally acclaimed, New York-based Spanish artist Manolo Valdes (b.1942, Valencia). The book's author, Dr Kosme de Baranano, discusses the abstracted, humanlike busts, contextualising them in the artist's wider practice.
Conceived and curated by Thierry W Despont, in cooperation with Marlborough and Steinitz galleries, Le Cabinet de Curiosités was a unique installation in which contemporary art converged with antique furnishings and architecture to create a setting both old-world and otherworldly. The exhibition presented work by Marlborough artists Despont, Manolo Valdés, and the late Claudio Bravo (the first posthumous exhibit of his work), as well as an eclectic array of rare objects from the Steinitz COLLECTIONS. An immersive environment of furnishings and antiquities from Steinitz, interspersed with Valdés’s trompe-l’oeil Libreria sculptures, Bravo’s hyperrealist paintings, plus Despont’s Nebula paintings of imaginary celestial orbs and his fantastical sculptural creatures assembled from found objects and tools, all combined to create a multisensory experience evoking a sense of wonder and fantasy.