Noticing Kandy G Lopez

Born In New Jersey Kandy G Lopez moved with her family to Miami where she received her BFA and BS from the University of South Florida concentrating in Painting and in Marketing and Management. She received her MFA with a concentration in Painting from Florida Atlantic University

She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Performing and Visual Arts at the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) at NOVA Southeastern University, and has also taught at Florida Atlantic University and Daytona State College.

As a visual artist, Lopez explores constructed identities, celebrating the strength, power, confidence and swag of individuals who live in urban and often economically disadvantaged environments. With a variety of mediums, her images develop a personal and socially compelling visual vocabulary that investigates race, the human defense mechanism, visibility and armor through fashion, and gentrification. Lopez wants her artwork to help educate, communicate, and foster uncomfortable topics that we seem to look past or avoid in our multi- cultural society. Representing individuals within poor communities in the U.S., these portraits help her, as a female Afro-Dominican American, come to terms with the way she too has to adopt and perform identities of survival.