Hosted by Berger Singerman and presented by the Castle Group and the Cathy and James Donnelly Family Fund at the Community Foundation of Broward, Business for the Arts of Broward’s (BFA) Arts Mean Business Speaker Series (AMB) continues with an intimate cocktail reception including a conversation and meet and greet with multimedia Afro-Caribbean American portrait and figurative artist Kandy G Lopez.

Lopez uses her artistic talents to tell the stories of people of color (POC) in the United States and explore identity through marginalized individuals who represent her community. Her current body of work entails using yarn and thread to create larger-than-life portraits on a plastic canvas that is meant to be used for rug making. The message behind her intentional selection of medium is that POC feel like they are being walked on. Lopez’s work is hung on gallery walls and in front of windows for sunlight to shine through, meant to be respected, appreciated and protected from soles of shoes.

Born in Bayonne, New Jersey and currently residing in Fort Lauderdale, Lopez received a Bachelor of Fine Art and Bachelor of Science in painting and marketing and management from the University of South Florida and a Master of Fine Art in painting from Florida Atlantic University.

Lopez’s work has been displayed at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Miramar Cultural Center and Coral Springs Museum of Art, among other venues throughout South Florida, as well as in Fort Worth, Texas and New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 2022, she received the Broward Cultural Division’s Artist Innovation Grant and Project Row House Grant.

The Arts Mean Business Speaker Series is free and open to the public. Guests who wish to attend must email their RSVP by January 17 to rvegas@bfabroward.org. For more information, visit https://bfabroward.org/programs/arts-means-business/.

AMB is just one of several ways BFA supports local artists while fostering cultural vitality, creative success and economic development. BFA continuously supports the local arts community and promotes local artists, cultural non-profits and diverse art-related projects. BFA annually hosts several events in addition to AMB, including Art in the Workplace, Art Curation, Public Art Creation, Art & Somm and the popular Art + Stroll.