By Sara Menco Arenas
Before an artist can fully craft and understand their work, they often have to spend years understanding themselves. For Afro-Caribbean visual artist Kandy G. Lopez, years of persistence and self-discovery led her from Florida classrooms to major galleries, where her layered portraits give voice to the communities that shaped her.
Born in New Jersey to Dominican parents, Lopez moved to Florida as a child. It was in
Opa-locka, a predominantly Black and Hispanic community, where she first navigated questions of race, culture, and belonging—themes that would later become central to her work as she grew up.
“I think as an adolescent, you’re constantly trying to figure out where you fit in and what person you’re gonna be on a certain day,” said Lopez. “So it was really hard for me to live in Jersey because it was all white (people) and I got called names. Then coming to Florida, there were also names too, even though they were the same as me, which was wild.”
Those early experiences with identity shaped Lopez’s perspective, but her entry into the arts came almost by accident, when an elementary school friend led her to a magnet program, where she chose art over dance.
“I wasn’t thinking about art when I came here, it was just another thing I can do to be with my friend,” said Lopez. “In middle school I was really bad at art. But the more that I did it, the better that I got, and I liked the challenge of getting better.”
This persistence carried Lopez through high school and into the Maryland Institute College of Art. After the 2007 market crash left her single mother unemployed, she moved back to Florida to continue her education closer to home.
“It was pointless, like why am I studying art and how is this beneficial to my family financially?” said Lopez. “So I decided I’ll just do business because business is safe, and then I moved to USF [University of South Florida] in Tampa to be a bit closer to my mom.”
However, Lopez described this period as “the most depressing part of her life,” a low point before discovering USF’s art program, which allowed her to study painting and marketing.
“I would go outside to paint and draw when someone came and said, ‘Oh, you’re part of the art program,’ and I didn’t even know USF had an art program,” Lopez said. “But I applied and got scholarships. So I double majored.”
By the time she graduated, Lopez knew she wanted to teach, which led her to Florida Atlantic University on a scholarship to pursue her MFA with a concentration in painting.
“That was my first time in a classroom by myself after shadowing other teachers,” Lopez said. “So the second year was my first teaching class, and I was like, ‘I love this.’ It was amazing—this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to teach and make art.”
Even as she pursued teaching, Lopez continued refining her own practice, developing a style rooted in cultural identity and layered materials. Her work uses paint, fiber, and glass to reflect the complexity of both her own experiences and the lives of the people she portrays.
“I’m a painter at heart— I feel like all of my different mediums are dealt with as if they’re paintings,” said Lopez. “Even if I’m cutting to create collages, the cutting part is still kind of organic where it feels like a painting pool.”
For Lopez, the choice of medium carries emotional weight and often reflects the background of the story she’s telling.
“When I use glass, I’ve always been interested in transparency. I think that’s one of the things that I was attracted to with painting because you can build layers,” said Lopez. “I was also thinking metaphorically, we are all layers. We have multiple personalities depending on who we’re talking to.”
When choosing her subjects, Lopez looks beyond appearances, focusing also on body language and presence.
“A lot of it also has to do with their mannerisms and their performance; like how they sit, how they speak, how they sway, how they stand. A lot of body language I’m interested in,” said Lopez.
Lopez embraces the need to challenge herself, and recognizes the importance of which stories she chooses to share through her art.
“These end up going into spaces where people can see themselves, which is really important to me,” Lopez said. “For my community to be able to be like, ‘Oh, eso se parece a mi tía, o mi tío, o mi amigo’ [Oh, that looks like my aunt, or my uncle, or my friend] like, I love that. I love when people resonate with the work.”
Creating moments of connection remains central to Lopez’s work. She has been on sabbatical since August 2024 and will return in August 2025 to continue as an associate professor in Nova Southeastern University’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, a position she’s held since 2014.
In 2023, she signed with ACA Galleries, one of New York’s oldest contemporary art galleries. Most recently, she exhibited her work at EXPO Chicago, one of the leading international contemporary art fairs, held April 24–27, 2025 — a major milestone in her growing career.
“Expo Chicago is a big deal. Any of the art fairs are a big deal—It was something that I didn’t think I would be a part of,” Lopez said. “I just make art, I show art, I sell and teach art and that makes me happy. I didn’t expect to be signed to a full gallery and go through the business side of the arts world, too.”
Even with new opportunities, Lopez remains focused on building a legacy that extends beyond her own career.
“My focus has been on making art and building my career. I want a legacy for my kids,” said Lopez. “My parents didn’t have the ability to do that because they were on survival mode when they moved to the United States. So, for me to be where I’m at is a gift to them.”
Sara Menco Arenas is a student reporter in NSU’s feature writing course taught by Dr. Megan Fitzgerald in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts.
