I first encountered Kandy G. Lopez’s larger-than-life fiber work at ACA Galleries’ sales space on the 2024 Armory Present. As New York Metropolis’s Javits Middle will not be precisely recognized for its charming and distinctive atmosphere, I usually race by it, in quest of artwork to cleanse my proverbial palate.
Exploding with type and persona, sample and coloration (suppose neon orange bucket hats, leopard pants, and bug-eye specs), Lopez’s portraits of her various Miami neighborhood stopped me in my tracks, a lot in the way in which that the portraits of Barkley L. Hendricks—a significant inspiration for the Afro-Caribbean artist—do.
As immediately arresting as Lopez’s portraits are from afar, the true magic occurs once you’re up shut, basking within the meticulously and absolutely hand-embroidered figures. The 38-year-old artist, who additionally works in prints, paint, and glass, has spent the final 4 years perfecting her fiber-based portraits, every of which usually takes per week or per week and a half to finish, if she’s within the studio six to eight hours a day. (Along with being a practising artist, Lopez is an affiliate professor within the Division of Communication, Media and Arts at Nova Southeastern College. She additionally has two younger youngsters.) 2025 has marked a number of milestones for the artist: she gained the Orlando Museum of Artwork’s Individuals’s Alternative Award; was granted a residency with the Galleries of Ringling Faculty of Artwork and Design in Sarasota, the place she may have a present in 2026; and he or she had her first worldwide solo exhibition on the Florence Fondation in Paris.
This November in New York Metropolis, ACA Galleries opened “Textile Truths: Faces of Resilience” (by January 17, 2026), Lopez’s sprawling second solo exhibition with the gallery, the place her technical prowess continues to impress. With every portrait, whether or not solo or group, bust or full-body, the photorealism from afar is stronger than the final, the close-up element extra astounding. It’s clear Lopez is rising extra assured in her apply, as she experiments with including three-dimensional touches like cowrie shells, taking part in with outlines and damaging area to distinction closely labored sections, and permitting the figures’ hair or sneakers to enterprise past their rectangular grid—an impact that the artist likens to color dripping. It’s as if Lopez is breaking the fourth-wall, asserting the figures’ company in not solely the daring outfits they put on but in addition their commanding poses. They proudly take up area.
