Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, associate professor of art and design, whose work incorporates ideas as wide-ranging as DNA mapping and sensory-deprivation tanks, is among the latest winners of the MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the "genius grant."

Manglano-Ovalle is one of twenty-three to receive the award this year. Each recipient will receive $500,000 over five years in unrestricted support. He is UIC's second MacArthur winner. Artist Kerry James Marshall, professor of art, received the prestigious award in 1997.

The MacArthur Foundation cites Manglano-Ovalle as "an artist who uses photography, video, sound, and sculpture to create works that illuminate our notions of personal identity and community."

Manglano-Ovalle's early work is based on community and is collaborative in nature, often dealing with issues affecting urban youth. His recent work takes a look at universal issues of identity, class, and the role of the individual in a multiethnic, technologically changing society.

The three criteria needed to be selected as a fellow, according to the MacArthur Foundation, are: "exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequentcreative work."

Manglano-Ovalle has been a full-time UIC faculty member for the past four years. Previously he taught at both UIC and the School of The Art Institute of Chicago as an adjunct instructor.

Born in Madrid, Spain, Manglano-Ovalle received his bachelor of arts degree in art and Latin American and Spanish literature from Williams College and his master of fine arts from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago.

He has created public art projects in Miami, San Antonio, and Chicago. Before joining UIC, he founded Street-Level Studio, now Street-Level Youth Media, a nonprofit community-based media center. Some of his solo exhibits include Woofer (1997), The Garden of Earthly Delights (1998), Sonambulo II (Blue) (1999) and Climate (2000).

Other honors include the Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award in 1992, a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship in 1995, an ArtPace Foundation International Artist Residency Fellowship in 1997, and a University of Washington Media Arts Residency in 1998.