About

Kelvin Lopez is a chicano printmaker and interdisciplinary artist based in San Diego, California. His current body of work challenges the traditional perspective of the customary materialization of a print by merging the boundaries of printmaking, Mexican textiles, his relationship/ involvements with nature, gardens, and his personal cultural background.  

Kelvin received a BFA degree with an emphasis in Printmaking from California State University, Long Beach and a MFA degree with an emphasis in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design. Kelvin is mostly printing monotype and relief prints as his chosen printmaking processes that he then embellishes and gives a personal touch that resemble Mexican textiles. His recent monotypes are printed in a manner that represent Mexican Serape blankets by his use of gradient rolls on a vertical matrix that allows for him to include flora from his garden or his daily nature walks with his dogs. Simultaneously, Kelvin creates what he calls a contemporary servilleta by adding embroidery and crochet borders onto his monotypes. These mixed media prints were inspired by his aunt mama-Mari, who he spent two months with in Oaxaca, Mexico post graduate school where he developed this ongoing collaborative project that represents his aunt’s crochet techniques and his devotion to represent the cultural significance within his work via printmaking. Some of the imagery included in his work take the forms of flora and fauna, abstract textures, Mixtec rulers from the Oaxacan Mixteca region, and more. Kelvin limits what he shares with the public since most of his work is very personal. He urges those who are interested in learning more about his creative process, the meaning of the work, or himself, to simply reach out and he would be more than happy to share what if he feels comfortable in doing so.