A leading artist in the renewal of contemporary international sculpture, Juan Muñoz is recognised for his unrestrained recovery of figurative language and his rapprochement with the canons of classical sculpture, which he was able to combine with the formal and conceptual problems of the art of his time.

After a production phase in which he explored issues related to the occupation and illusions of space, materialised in works that made use of architectural elements, in the early 1990s the sculptor began to introduce the human figure and narrative into his practice, in scenes conceived with great theatricality. Alone or in groups, in actions and attitudes that explore the relationship between reality and fiction, the recognisable and the strange, these figures not only urge reflection on the spatial dimensions that define the individual's (physical) relationship with the world, but also call up themes related to the human condition (loneliness, processes of sociability), challenging the viewer to question their own existence.

Emblematic of Juan Muñoz's work are the characters with Asian facial features - men, short and bald, whose identical heads are derivations of a 19th century ceramic bust (- Chih Fan Han Yang
, by the sculptor Jean Mich) - who appear in various works, including - Chino mirándose en espejo redondo
, from 1999.

Seemingly mundane - a man looking at himself in the mirror, smiling happily - the scene has something disconcerting about it, not least because of the torn, frozen smile of the character who, although fixed on his reflection, could well be laughing at the observer. Here, tensions between distance and proximity are explored, between the act of seeing and being seen: the presence of the mirror, which reflects both the figure and the observer, creates the illusion of a connection between the two; however, even if we project our reflection onto the sculpture, we never cease to be intruders, incapable of any exchange with the enigmatic character. The impossibility of communication and the critique of an increasingly alienating narcissistic society, clearly evident in this work, were recurring motifs in Muñoz's oeuvre.