About
Artist Statement
Kelvin Lopez is a Chicano printmaker whose practice challenges and redefines the traditions of printmaking. Historically tied to strict processes and black-and-white editions, print in Lopez’s hands becomes expansive, layered, and deeply personal. His work weaves together bold serape patterns, delicate impressions of flowers gathered from his garden, and the intimate labor of family members who crochet borders around his monotypes. Each piece emerges as a hybrid object: part print, part textile, part garden, part family archive.
Materials lie at the heart of Lopez’s practice. He often prints on Pellon, a fabric usually reserved for fashion and upholstery, transforming it into a site of cultural resonance. Flowers carry the weight of cycles of care and renewal from his garden; crochet stitches hold the presence of his aunts, whose hours of labor embody familial devotion. These materials, often dismissed as everyday or utilitarian, are elevated in his work as precious carriers of memory, heritage, and connection.
Alongside print, Lopez creates crystalline glass sculptures that extend his exploration of preciousness into new forms. Minerals such as malachite, selenite, lapis lazuli, and jade are stirred into molten glass and poured over personally welded steel molds, where they crystallize into radiant entities. Presented with light and projection, these works emanate a cosmic presence, echoing the layered depth of his prints while offering a different material language for wonder, spirituality, and transformation.
Lopez’s process is one of layering: ink over textile, plant over paper, family over artist, glass over mineral, mirroring the way identities and histories overlap. Each work is both an image and an encounter, asking viewers to reconsider what is valued, what is preserved, and what can be reinvented. By dissolving the boundaries between printmaking and textiles, glass and minerals, tradition and experimentation, he reimagines the possibilities of material and positions it as a vessel for belonging, intimacy, and cultural continuity.
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Artist Bio
Kelvin Lopez is a Chicano printmaker and interdisciplinary artist working between Los Angeles and San Diego. He earned his BFA in Printmaking from California State University, Long Beach, and his MFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design.
His practice moves fluidly between print and glass, dissolving the boundaries that define each. In his hands, a print might function like a textile: layered with memory, labor, and ritual,while glass becomes crystalline entities infused with minerals and light, holding the same cultural and emotional weight. This dialogue between media grounds his work in questions of belonging, identity, and collective care.
Community is at the core of Lopez’s practice. He has taught and collaborated with disabled adults through TRACE Social Justice League, unhoused youth at the Monarch School, formerly incarcerated individuals through Designing Creative Futures with California Lawyers for the Arts, as well as high school and college students, museums, and nonprofit programs across Southern California. His ethos of care extends into acts of solidarity by donating works to support families in Gaza and those impacted by ICE.
Lopez knows he is only as strong as the communities he keeps and engages with. Whether in a print studio, a glass studio, leading a workshop, or reaching out to new audiences. For him, community is community, and it will always remain central. His goal of opening a community printmaking studio in San Diego by the end of 2026 grows from this commitment: to create an inclusive space where collective practice thrives, where heritage and experimentation meet, and where art continues to be a vessel for dialogue, resilience, inclusivity, and shared imagination.