Michelle Lopez is an interdisciplinary sculptor and installation artist. She explores feminist and race politics through the lens of a minority body — as a skin, a shell, a mirrored reflection, an object of desire, a protest. She processes the violence of recent American political events, beginning with 9/11 and going into our present global warfare and societal collapse. Her research and exploitation of industrial materials and technologies, exposes our finite societal systems by inverting cultural tropes through her process of building. She uses the body in space and performance to consider how global-scale violence impacts us somatically in profound but invisible ways. 

Recent solo exhibitions include: Ballast & Barricades, ICA Philadelphia (2019–20) and Commonwealth & Council, LA (2023). Two-person and group exhibitions include Ballroom Marfa, Texas (2024); CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2025); and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2024). Lopez received a Guggenheim Fellowship in the category of Fine Arts (2019); Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship (2023 Exhibitions Fellowship and 2024 Artist Fellowship); and is represented by Commonwealth & Council, Los Angeles.

Lopez is an Associate Professor in the MFA Fine Arts Program at The Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania and leads the Sculpture Division.