Business for the Arts of Broward is a not-for-profit organization that educates the business community about the importance of Broward County’s art and cultural community and engages them in building connections between cultural vitality, creative success, and economic development.
Fiber Workshop
The workshop will focus on identity and experimentation of materials. We will be using plastic canvas and thread to create portraits or something that relates to identity. Does not need to be figurative. I have been teaching for 10+ years now, and it’s important to keep a few parameters open for self/artistic discovery.
As a young afro Caribbean American female, there weren’t many examples of possible career paths. I didn’t have a mentor that looked like me. I was however fortunate to have parents that supported my artistic drive and teachers that saw the determination in me. I became a teacher to become a mentor; to be an example of otherness in a career path which lacks representation of POCs. This is another reason why I also create art – to have examples for the future POC artists besides Tanner and Basquiat. Not only is it important for my career to exhibit but also to foster an educational component within communities of color. For this installation, I would love to have a workshop component. This would allow the visitors to not only see my work but also interact with a real person/artist that looks like them. Kids and young adults are easily influenced and manipulated by social media. As of new studies, this new generation has the highest rate of depression and suicidal attempts. This can be an opportunity to get outside of their comfort zone and to express themselves in an artist sense. Or it can just be a place of refuge for just a few hours of their day.
Time needed: 1-2.5 hours
Your Instructor
Kandy G Lopez
Kandy G Lopez was born in New Jersey and moved with her family to Miami. 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 the Program Director for the Art + Design program as well as an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Media and the Arts in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences at NOVA Southeastern University.
As a multimedia artist, Lopez explores constructed identities, celebrating the strength, power, confidence and swag of individuals who live in urban and often economically disadvantaged environments. As a female Afro-Caribbean figurative artist she is eager to be challenged materialistically and metaphorically when representing marginalized individuals that inspire her. Her work is created out of the necessity to learn something new about her cultures. Lopez is interested in developing a nostalgic dialogue between the artwork and the viewer. She makes work to be included in the history of visual arts.
Kandy G Lopez’s work has been exhibited in several galleries and museums throughout the country and internationally. Recent exhibitions include two solo exhibitions funded by the Broward Arts Council at the Girls’ Club Collection Warehouse and the Frank C. Ortis Gallery in Florida. She has been awarded four residencies within the last two years and has recently participated in group exhibitions at Studio18, the Far Gallery, the Rochester Public Library, and the New Bedford Art Museum to name a few.