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# Another Awkward MLK Sculpture Draws Mixed Responses
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/another-awkward-mlk-sculpture-draws-mixed-responses/
- Published: 2025-08-18T20:46:46.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:03:26.000Z
- Description: The 11-foot bronze unveiled in Winter Park, Florida, has been described as a "caricature" of the civil rights leader that “just doesn’t look like him.”
- Author: Maya Pontone
- Tags: News, Martin Luther King Jr, Monuments, Public Art, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 09:41 (2025)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2025/08/mlk-actual-lead.jpg)

An 11-foot-tall bronze sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. was unveiled in Winter Park, Florida. (all photos by and courtesy Oasis Engineering LLC)

A bronze sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. is garnering criticism for its unusual depiction of the late Civil Rights leader — again. 

It feels like just yesterday that the internet was debating whether Hank Willis Thomas’s tribute to King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, [resembled a phallus](https://hyperallergic.com/794065/a-new-mlk-sculpture-draws-mixed-reactions/) from some angles. Now, less than three years later, a new 11-foot-tall monument in Winter Park, Florida, has spurred critique for its exaggerated physical proportions that fall more than just a little short of his likeness.

“The Ripple” (2025), unveiled last month, features a magnified pair of shoes, head, and left arm in what artist Andrew Luy described as a symbolic gesture to King’s efforts and enduring legacy. 

“This sculpture was never intended to be a hyper-realistic replica of Dr. King,” wrote Luy, a Wall Street manager-turned-sculptor, in an [August 6 letter to the city ](https://cityofwinterpark.org/docs/government/projects/mlk-park-renovations-project/letter-from-the-artist-andrew-luy-2025-08-06.pdf?ref=hyperallergic.com)in response to feedback. “We chose to depict Dr. King in a stylized, larger-than-life scale, using simplified forms to emphasize strength, gesture, and approachability." 

Luy has [previously assisted teachers](https://www.andrewluy.com/about?ref=hyperallergic.com) at the Art Students League of New York and the National Academy of Design, and [reportedly](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/16/us/mlk-statue-florida.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) completed two sculpting residencies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2025/08/mlk-side.jpg)

"It just doesn't look like him," said one resident at the work's unveiling last month.

Out of more than 1,000 proposals, he was selected for the $500,000 project by a town committee and worked in collaboration with a team of Winter Park residents, who have stood by the work. Notably, the town’s population consists of [less than 5% Black residents](https://datausa.io/profile/geo/winter-park-fl?ref=hyperallergic.com#demographics).

Jonathan Blount, a founder of *Essence* *Magazine* and a resident of neighboring Orlando, described the sculpture as a "caricature" of the visionary leader in a meeting with city commissioners and has [called for a do-over](https://www.wesh.com/article/new-mlk-statue-winter-park-reactions/65579725?ref=hyperallergic.com).

“It just isn't good enough for a permanent lifelong representation of someone who is so important to our history," Blount said.

To his point, other residents have also expressed mixed responses, commenting to [local reporters](https://local12.com/news/nation-world/community-shocked-after-botched-reveal-highly-anticipated-reverend-dr-doctor-martin-luther-king-jr-estate-statue-cincinnati-essence-magazine-cofounder-jonathan-blount-andrew-luy-feedback-characterize-proper-reactions-lifelong-representation-winter-park?ref=hyperallergic.com) that they were “shocked” at the unveiling because, as one woman put it simply, “It doesn't look like him."