How Sergio Furnari, a Traveling Sculptor, Spends His Sundays

Sergio Furnari likes to think big. For the last 25 years, he has made a name for himself creating and displaying his giant works of art in public spaces.

“I believe in manifestation,” he said. “If you dream it, it will come true.”

His latest project, a nine-foot-tall metal statue of the soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, was unveiled on Feb. 5 in Times Square to commemorate Mr. Ronaldo’s 40th birthday. The sculpture will tour the globe atop a 2022 Jeep Gladiator that Mr. Furnari painted red and green — the colors of the national flag in Portugal, where Mr. Ronaldo is from.

“I wanted to make a monument to him,” Mr. Furnari, 55, said. “He’s the best in the world, the Superman of life.”

Mr. Furnari, who hails from the Sicilian tile-making town of Caltagirone, first came to New York City in 1991 and made his living designing and installing elaborate hand-painted tile murals in luxury pools.

In 2001, he rolled out “Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper,” a 40-foot sculptural version of the 1932 photo of 11 ironworkers suspended on an I-beam at Rockefeller Center. He mounted it on a pickup truck and displayed it at the site of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks.