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Commentary of the picture:

During his time as a professional fashion designer and due to his passion far photography, Masaya assembled a collection of photographs of the cities he visitad on his travels around the world. lt is clear that the experiences from this period in his career directly influenced his artistic technique, which combines painting with photographs and other cuttings.

The impact on his work is a fascinating, colourful universe constructed from a multitude of images of icons and personalities in an apparently anarchic but coordinated way. Added to this ensemble are materials that invest overall brightness and relief to create a remarkable, eye-catching work.

This work in the Carmen Thyssen Collection is a Neo-Pop vision of New York, in which symbols of the city appear alongside images of contemporary celebrities. Deriving from popular art, the works of the Neo-Pop Art movement are more easily understood by all audiences.

The artist recreates the characteristic night-time atmosphere of Broadway, representad by an avalancha of illuminated signs for shows and films, interspersed with images of contemporary celebrities. Among the smaller images are the faces of Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kesha on the front page of V Magazine, and also the classic fictional Disney character, Donald Duck, in one of his moments of rage.

The coloured glitter paint adds pinpoints of light to each of the represented personalities, signs, buildings and vehicles. The whole work becomes a spectacular composition of shimmering personalities and elements, seeming to take on a lite of its own in a dynamic, intense scenario. lt is interesting to observe how the surface of the four edges of the work is painstakingly crafted with a succession of seven to twelve images that include Broadway, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Andy Warhol and Elvis Presley, between small night-time panoramas of New York buildings lit by illuminated signs.

Núria Parés