Manuel López (artist)

Manuel López (born in 1983) is a Chicano artist based in East Los Angeles, California. He specializes in traditional drawing and painting. López's works express the details he observes in his surroundings such as run down houses, large palm trees, and a silent and still neighborhood. Along with his surroundings, he also expresses the memories he holds of the experiences within his area.
Biography
López was born in Boyle Heights alongside his sisters in a small apartment and later moved and raised in East L.A. He first remembers drawing next to his old apartment in Boyle Heights where his father encouraged him and his sisters. López describes that they would draw cereal mascots such as Tricks the Rabbit from Trix and how he once sold a drawing he created of The Rocketeers to a neighbor kid. He transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) after attending East Los Angeles College. It was at SAIC where he received a bachelor's degree in both painting and drawing.
While at the SAIC López lived in the Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen. His artistic sensibility was influenced by Philip Guston and Willem de Kooning. He was both offended and proud that people would call his work "tropical", "exotic" and "very Latin"; however they would also tell him "that's not your culture" if he veered away from vernacular Latino or Chicano content. to a new home his father had bought, there he continued to paint and draw while also working to develop his style. López's work was included in the 2019 SUR:Biennial, Cuentista (storyteller), organized at the Río Hondo College Art Gallery.
Group Exhibitions
Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment
Dark Progressivism was a group exhibition held from November 11, 2017 to January 14, 2018 at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH). The exhibition focused on the notion of Racquachismofrom the Mexican term, "rasquache" for "low-class" or "beneath respect." The artists included in the exhibition use rasquache or "low-brow" sensibilities to reflect on street life.
Regeneración: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology
Regeneración was a group exhibition at the Vincent Price Museum in East Los Angeles that explored the transnational circulation of ideas and artistic practice between the U.S. and Mexico in relation to activism and revolution.
Solo Exhibitions
So Mundane and Incomplete
López's first solo exhibition took place in 2018 at Eastern Projects Gallery in Los Angeles. These works captured memories from his childhood as moments "trapped" on paper to allow the viewer to experience these views overlooking rooftops. The Los Angeles Music Center featured López in For the Love of L.A, a curated series on Angelino creativity across a variety of geographies and creative disciplines.

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