Opera Gallery Hong Kong is honoured to present the artworks of Manolo Valdés in Hong Kong this March. The gallery will unveil masterpieces by the Spanish Master, famous for his interpretation of the women figures from the History of Art in all media. The gallery also celebrates Women’s History Month and shines light on females by standing with United Nations’ global solidarity campaign - #HeForShe - in order to increase visitors’ awareness and help one another understand the united force of gender equality around the world. Internationally acclaimed both as a painter and as a sculptor, Manolo Valdés, born in 1942 in Valencia, Spain, is an artist who has mastered multiple media including drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking. Valdés has built a reputation of an artist capable of manifesting his thoughts and feelings through his technical ability and active engagement with the use of a multitude of materials, as diverse as steel, marble, resin or hemp. Valdés continues to take inspiration from works by key figures in Art History such as Velázquez, Matisse and Brancusi and has constantly sought to reinterpret great masterpieces throughout his career. Valdés has never stopped investigating and reinventing his art, with his insatiable appetite for experimentation utilising a broad range of raw materials to subvert, reinvent or reinvigorate these canonical familiar images and their established contexts. Among the goddesses that have emerged from his works, Clio is clearly one that the artist works most assiduously at. In Greek mythology, Clio was the muse of intelligence and history, said to inspire the retelling of events and stories of the past. Just as Clio pays homage by reciting great events, Valdés’ artworks are a eulogy to the great works from the History of Art and the masters who created them. Just like Clio and the Royal female figures of the Spanish Court (the Meninas and the Infantas), Manolo Valdés sculpts faces simplified to the point of abstraction, serene mirrors where all women can see their reflection. Through portrayal of strength, intelligence and beauty of all women, Valdés uses his art as a visual language to honour the female figure. Long after the original mythological creation of Clio, women continue to be acknowledged in his works by their beauty, whilst weaving the narratives of the mythology of the contemporary woman. Inspired by Manolo Valdés’ artworks and in honour of both Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, Opera Gallery actively invites guests part in the #HeForShe global campaign, initiated by United Nations to encourages people of all genders to understand the idea of gender equality and take part in achieving it. Share a #HeForShe photo on social media or a click to commit on our provided tablet creates a discourse about people everywhere understanding the idea of gender equality as not just being a women’s issue, but a human rights issue in which we can all stand in solidarity as a united force.