[Image description: Installation of Red Yellow Green Purple at Carleton University Art Gallery. The large quilt in shades of gray with black and white accents is being used as a projection screen for a digital quilt self-portrait of Wit Lopez. In front of the quilt on the light colored hardwood floor of the gallery, there are yarn items like crocheted pillow balls, crocheted circles and yarn braids in the colors red, yellow, green, and purple. A long pillow matching the fabric of the quilt lays among the yarn objects. Projected onto the cotton quilt is a digital quilt self-portrait titled Don’t Talk to Me or My Sons, Pt. 1. The piece is also in shades of red, yellow, green, and purple with the subject holding pillow balls as if they are small children and staring off longingly into the distance.]
Current Exhibitions
(re)FOCUS: Then and Now
Exhibition: (re)FOCUS: Then and Now
Location: The Galleries At Moore, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Dates: January 26 - March 16, 2024
(re)FOCUS: Now, along with its ancillary programming, provides a platform to celebrate historically underrepresented voices and features projects by primarily Philadelphia-based artists who are exploring ideas of gender identity, representation, marginalization, social justice, violence, equality, and empowerment in their contemporary studio practices.
Participating artists include Atisha Fordyce, Wit López, Li Sumpter, Eva Wu, and a selection of work curated by Isa Isioma Matisse of The Future is Us Collective including Annais Delgado '22, De’von Downes, Laila Islam '22, Traci Johnson, Isa Isioma Matisse, D’shon Mccarthy, Amber Mooers, Forrest Rose, Gina Taylor, Zella Vanié, Alyssa Weinfurtner, Mitch Wiesen, Meg Wolensky, and Candice Wright. (Re)FOCUS: Now is organized by Moore’s gallery director Gabrielle Lavin Suzenski along with Denise M. Brown, executive director of the Leeway Foundation.
“you bring me joy!”:
A Black QT Experience
Exhibition: “you bring me joy!”: A Black QT Experience
Location: iMPeRFeCT Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Dates: January 20 - February 24, 2024 (gallery is open Fridays & Saturdays 12-5PM)
I was invited to curate this group exhibition by Renny Molenaar and Rocío Cabello. The exhibition is intended to celebrate and uplift the talent of Black LGBTQ+ creatives and make space for each artist to interpret the question "What does Black LGBTQ+ joy look and feel like to you?" The invited artists include Sunyah Abdul-Aziz, Brian Bazemore, Apollo Domenech, Milez Estelle, Petra Floyd, Anthony Folks, Brittany Chanel Johnson, Verlena Johnson, and Jennifer Turnbull, with an opening reception poetry performance by Nikki Powerhouse. I also have a piece in the exhibition because… well, why not, haha.
Selected Past Exhibitions
SKULL SESSIONS
Exhibition: Skull Sessions
Location: Hicks Art Center Gallery, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, PA, United States
Dates: November 20, 2023 - January 6, 2024
This was a group exhibition featuring art works representing 20 Artist Run Spaces and Cultural Organizations currently operating in the Philadelphia and Bucks County regions. The entire exhibition was curated by Clifford Eberly, the Exhibitions Associate at the Hicks Art Center Gallery at Bucks County Community College. I participated as part of the display for Till Arts Project along with artists Sunyah Abdul-Aziz, Lu Eady, Ivan Felder, Andrew Gonzalez, and Curtis Walker.
“…a place where there’s love overflowing!”
Exhibition: “…a place where there’s love overflowing!”
Location: Main Line Art Center Welcome Gallery, Haverford, PA, United States
Dates: January 31 - March 31, 2023
The display at the Main Line Art Center is the culmination of my time as artist-in-residence during the Fall 2022 Disabled Artist Residency. Featuring a new body of work and my exploration into clay, the small show consists of pastel yarn objects reminiscent of cotton candy, white stoneware sculptures with metal, wood, and pastel yarn elements, a banner with a call to action to care for chronically ill artists/patrons, and an experimental stop-motion video of pastel granny squares being made.
The title of the display is a line from the song “Home” from the Broadway musical The Wiz. For those who know the musical and the wonderful song, it is a light and pleasant feeling to recognize the lyric. Beneath that meaning, I am using it here in the hopes that the arts and culture sector will become a more welcoming place for immunocompromised people: a place where there is love overflowing.
Exhibition: each of us, beloved
Location: Dunlop Art Gallery (Sherwood Village Branch), Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Dates: July 2 - September 25, 2022
This is a duo show between myself and Canadian artist m. patchwork monoceros, curated by Sarah-Tai Black. In this exhibition I have several works including two large 11’ x 11’/3.35m x 3.35m cotton quilts, one featuring the projections for Red Yellow Green Purple and the other featuring Tryna Keep A Straight Face; a new 6’ x 6’/1.83m x 1.83m printed digital quilt portrait entitled Oh, Don’t Mind Me, Baby created specifically for this exhibition; and a few other works.
each of us, beloved
Exhibition: Contemporary Quilts
Location: Menino Arts Center, Hyde Park, MA, United States
Dates: October 25 - December 23, 2021
I currently have one piece on display in this juried group exhibition, a 12” x 12”/30.48cm x 30.48cm framed print of my digital quilt self-portrait, entitled Don’t Talk to Me or My Sons, Pt. 1. The exhibition is juried by Napoleon Jones-Henderson and Susan Thompson, curated by Sasja Lucas, and co-curated by Mary Harman.
Exhibition: PROUD: The Power of Art to Challenge & Celebrate History & Social Change
Location: Arts Center Gallery at Germantown Academy, Fort Washington, PA, United States
Dates: October 7 - November 18, 2021
A print of my piece Tryna Keep a Straight Face is on display in this group show. The work is a digital quilt self-portrait printed as a 12” x 18”/30.48cm x 45.72cm limited edition poster (50 total posters printed).
PROUD
Exhibition: The Baroness Elsa Project
Location: Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Dates: September 28 - December 12, 2021
In this wonderful group exhibition that celebrates Dadaist pioneer Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, I have my largest installation to date on display. The installation consists of an 11’ x 11’/3.35m x 3.35m cotton quilt, 8 crocheted pillow balls, 100 crocheted yarn circles, 8 yarn braids, and a 3’/1m cotton pillow to match the quilt. Projected on to the cotton quilt are a series of 8 digital quilts, including two self-portraits and 4 that feature fellow disabled artists from the Philadelphia area (Briana Hickman, Curtis Walker, Ivan Felder, and Kenwyn Samuel). The installation is entitled Red Yellow Green Purple. After its run at Carleton University Art Gallery, the entire exhibition will travel to be on display at Owens Art Gallery at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, Canada.