Manglano-Ovalle's diverse work is connected by its interest in probing the underlying forces, systems and histories that shape and describe contemporary identity, ethics, aesthetics, climate, and politics. His early projects employed multi-faceted, community-oriented strategies to explore cultural identity, migration and immigration, social and geographic boundaries, and urban violence. His later work evolved in a more conceptual direction, initiating wider sociopolitical dialogues on culture, science and technology, ecosystems, and geopolitics. He collaborated with a group of neighboring at-risk Latino teens, leading to the formation of Street-Level Video, a training collective that empowered youths to articulate street culture and community concerns about gang activity,
gentrification, social control and cultural fragmentation. Manglano-Ovalle explored similar issues in early sculpture and installations incorporating unorthodox elements, such as suspended inner tubes evoking the iconic
bolsa (raft) (
Flotilla, 1991), actual rafts (
Balsero, 1994), He transforms research and data from many disciplines (engineering, architecture, genomics, climatology, astrophysics) into technologically sophisticated, often minimalist sculptures, videos and installations.
The Garden of Delights (1998) re-visualized
genetic coding in order to examine its potential use in the representation, portrayal and categorization of identity.
Heavenly Bodies (2003) translated genetic coding into cloud motifs, whose celestial immateriality undermined notions of certainty associated with
DNA testing.
Iceberg (r11i01) (2005), a 25-foot sculpture consisting of a matrix of more than 1,600 aluminum tubes, captured the structure of a once-existing, 460-foot
Labrador Sea iceberg from advanced radar and sonar data; juxtaposing the utopian vision of
Fuller's
geodesic dome (in crumpled form) with the threat of
global warming, the sculpture intimated modernism's failure, particularly in another version shown on its side,
Recumbent Iceberg (r11i01) (2006). Manglano-Ovalle built the vaguely industrial, container-like structure using computer renderings based on satellite images,
State Department renderings and descriptions in Powell's speech. His permanent 2013 public work,
Weather Field No. 1, is a kinetic array of weather vanes and anemometers for
Tongva Park in
Santa Monica, California. The installation
Well (2014–5) comprises an exhibition and permanent work of
land art in
Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico in which Manglano-Ovalle installed stainless steel hand pumps to manually extract water from
aquifers below for public consumption. It explores the issue of water extraction while reframing minimalist and
readymade art conventions by maintaining its object's utilitarian function. ==Recognition and collections==