Textile Truths: Faces of Resilience: Kandy G Lopez

Textile Truths: Faces of Resilience

November 1, 2025 through January 10, 2026

ACA Galleries

173 Tenth Avenue, New York

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 1, 3-5pm

ACA Galleries proudly presents Textile Truths: Faces of Resilience, the second solo exhibition by multimedia Afro-Caribbean American portrait artist Kandy G Lopez. On view from November 1, 2025 through January 10, 2026 at ACA Galleries (173 Tenth Avenue, New York), the exhibition unveils monumental fiber portraits that celebrate the intimate connection between textiles and communities of color. Lopez explores this relationship through themes of strength, vulnerability, courage and perseverance, employing the medium as a repository of cultural identity and collective memory that bears witness to the resilience of those historically marginalized. Exclusively represented by ACA Galleries, Lopez has emerged as one of the most vital voices in contemporary portraiture through her innovative “fiber paintings,” handwoven works that blur the boundaries between painting and textile art.

The exhibition debuts Lopez’s commanding new work City Boys (2025), conceived as a direct counterpart to City Girls (2025). On view together for the first time, these two multi-figure compositions, each depicting seven larger than life figures, open a vital dialogue on representation and visibility that honors the enduring strength of communities too long rendered invisible by dominant cultural narratives. City Girls offers a tribute to sisterhood, weaving together individual agency and shared solidarity through Lopez’s signature fiber technique. City Boys extends this conversation into brotherhood, exploring masculine identity with a focus on vulnerability and power. Through this pairing, Lopez asserts the complexity of portrayal, presenting a practice that is both deeply personal and firmly rooted in cultural memory.

“These works are about representation,” Lopez explains. “They are about witnessing people as they are, in this moment — about belonging and the bonds that sustain us.”

Alongside the large-scale compositions, Lopez presents a series of individual portraits of the figures from City Girls and City Boys. These works reveal the distinct character and spirit of each figure, creating moments of intimacy that complement the collective force of the larger pieces. Each is woven with precision and care, deploying textiles as a language of empowerment and recognition. “I am interested in developing a nostalgic dialogue between the artwork and the viewer,” Lopez explains. “If I’m not learning from my materials and how it affects the message, it’s not worth creating.”

“Kandy’s work is more than portraiture, it is presence and testimony,” notes Mikaela Lamarche, Director and Curator at ACA Galleries. “Her practice affirms the networks of love and support that sustain communities while bringing forward the dignity and visibility of those too often overlooked.”

Textile Truths: Faces of Resilience arrives following an extraordinary year of recognition for Lopez in 2025. She received the People's Choice Award at the Orlando Museum of Art, presented her first international solo exhibition in Paris and participated in multiple museum shows. Textile Truths: Faces of Resilience is a testament to the power of textiles as vessels of heritage and expression. Through her handwoven portraits, Lopez transforms fiber into a language of dignity and endurance, reclaiming cultural space while affirming resilience as both personal and collective truth.