Kandy G Lopez b. 1987

Kandy G Lopez was born in New Jersey and moved with her family to Florida when she was young. 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 in 2014. She has taught at Florida Atlantic University, Daytona State College, and is now teaching as an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Media and Arts at the Halmos College of Art and Sciences at Nova Southeastern University.   

As an Afro-Caribbean visual artist, Lopez is eager to be challenged materialistically and metaphorically when representing marginalized individuals that inspire and move her. Her works are created out of the necessity to learn something new about her people and culture. Lopez is interested in developing a nostalgic dialogue between the artwork and the viewer. If she’s not learning from her materials and how it affects the message, it's not worth creating.

Lopez has presented numerous solo and group exhibitions across North America, including a recent exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida, where she was honored with the 2025 People’s Choice Award. In fall 2025, she debuted her first international solo exhibition at the Florence Foundation in Paris, alongside museum presentations at Ringling College of Art + Design, the Armory Art Center, and the North Dakota Museum of Art. That same year, she was awarded the prestigious 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art. Her second solo exhibition with ACA Galleries, Textile Truths: Faces of Resilience, remained on view through January 2026.

Lopez currently has a traveling exhibition which was recently at the Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC), and will continue to additional venues at the Hiram Van Gordon Art Gallery, Tennessee State University, Nashville and the Reading Public Museum in Pennsylvania in 2027. Her public collections include the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Gibbes Museum, the Orlando Museum of Art, the North Dakota Museum of Art, the Bunker Artspace,  the Girls' Club Collection, and the Nova Southeastern University Museum Fort Lauderdale.