Future Past Perfect, featuring NSU Associate Professor and Program Director of Art + Design, Kandy G Lopez.
Saturday, July 29, 2023
6 – 8 pm
Drinks and light bites provided
Free for members; $20 for non-members
Image Credits: Kandy G Lopez, LoriAnn, 2023
Yarn and spray paint on plastic canvas. Courtesy of the artist and ACA Galleries, NY © Kandy G Lopez
Future Past Perfect consists of seven concurrent solo exhibitions of South Florida artists, for whom this will be their first solo museum show. The presentation will consider the ways in which these emerging artists’ careers were impacted by the COVID pandemic. As those who were beginning to establish their professional presence were sidetracked, others were affected as students, made to navigate building an art practice in isolation. Museums and art galleries shuttered for months (sometimes years), leaving these artists with few opportunities other than the internet for sharing their work with the public and little or no personal contact with other artists and professionals. In these moments, artists entered their studios with a distinct focus afforded by this uninterrupted time. Through their work, they grappled with their fears of the unknown, the tragic suffering caused by the pandemic, the vagaries of politics, migration, global warming and social justice. In the aftermath of this period, a renaissance has emerged within the South Florida art community that includes a burst of emerging talented artists who have yet to receive widespread recognition.
Kandy G Lopez: (in)visibility: caché
This exhibition consists of four recently constructed large-scale fiber portraits, each depicting a friend or passerby with a striking sense of presence. Lopez’s exhibition title considers the polysemy of the word caché, primarily focusing on its definition as a person with an intangible (or hidden) sense of commanding presence; in her own words, “Someone who has swagger.” To have caché is to exude a sense of power, however, what lies beneath this is often a desire to be seen in a space where one feels unacknowledged. Emotions, expectations, and visibility are stored away for the comfort of others, hidden in a caché. Lopez explores the strength, power, confidence, and vulnerability of individuals through a variety of media. The artist intends for her work to help educate, communicate, and foster discourse around race and racism. Her woven textile portraits are a way for the artist herself to consider her own image as a female Afro-Dominican American, and come to terms with the performed and adopted identities she and others create as a means of survival in today’s society. This exhibition is one of seven concurrent solo exhibitions for South Florida artists in NSU Art Museum’s Future Past Perfect series.