On large parts of colorful mesh, Kandy G. Lopez Embroiders large -scale portraits of people from historically marginalized communities. “Her works have been created from the need to learn something new about her people and culture,” says an explanation.
Based on her Afro-Caribbean descent, the artist-based artist, based in Fort Lauderdale, celebrates the style, culture and heritage of individuals as a way to build connections and to generate dialogue around representation.
Lopez started working with mesh and fiber almost ten years ago, but she started approaching it more seriously as a great principle of her practice in 2021, while ate an artist-in-residence ate The Hambidge Center In Georgia. “As a painter, my backgrounds were minimal. Sometimes they would have monochromatic cityscapes,” Lopez tells Colossal, “so, the background rare is something I am familiar with.”
Visibility, presence and representation are vital for the artist’s work. In every composition, she concentrates vividly dressed, life -size figures, so that their looks immediately meet the viewer. By using material and metaphor – such as layered threads that suggest how BIPOC individuals “disappear and appear” – they interweave notions of community, resilience and story. “I love the connections and stories that the individuals tell, but also how the stories tell the material,” she says.
The roasted backgrounds evoke associations with Buurtstraat patterns and the overlapping layers woven warp and impact. “I also love the metaphor in transparency, layers and vulnerability,” says the artist, and sometimes still shares cityscapes on the mesh.
Lopez is represented by ACA Gallery. See more about her website And Instagram.
