Maru Lopez
Maru Lopez is an artist, educator, and craft researcher. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she is presently based in San Diego, CA.
Her practice is a process of exploration and reflection about our connections to objects and the meaning we install in them. For the last decade, she has focused on jewelry, its intimate relationship with the body, and how this provides a powerful platform to share ideas. Her jewelry has been exhibited throughout Europe, Latin America, and the United States, including Jewellery is a Metamorphic View of the World at the Ilias Lalalounis Jewelry Museum in Greece, Manfred Bischoff: A Retrospective during Munich Jewellery Week 2015, Alchimia: An Anthology at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, Vinte e Tres: Joalharia Contemporanea na Ibero-America in Lisbon, Portugal, II Bienal Latinoamericana de Joyeria Contemporanea in Argentina, Hot Dog: An Exhibition during SNAG 2019, Passengers at Munich Jewellery Week 2020, as well as Insurgencies: Women's Art on the Border in the Era of the Cold War at The Front Gallery, La Frontera at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, and Objects D'Art at Embajada Gallery in San Juan. Alongside her artistic practice, Maru works as a museum educator and craft scholar in San Diego. Her writing has been included in The Journal of Modern Craft, Hyperallergic, and the forthcoming book Craft Schools: Where We Make What We Inherit.
Maru holds a BA in Latin American History from the University of Puerto Rico, an AAS in Fashion Design from Parsons School of Design, an MA in Critical Craft Studies from Warren Wilson College, and studied jewelry for 4 years at Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School in Florence, Italy. Her research focuses on Puerto Rico, craft knowledges in contemporary art, notions of Puerto Ricanness, and the re-imaginings of possible futures. Maru was a participant in the 2023 HereIn Writers Workshop.
Read her writing on HereIn: