An interview with 2025 Artist Resident Mauricio López F. ahead of his group show opening on October 30, 2026 at Chicago Artists Coalition. This spotlight series aims to serve as an intimate introduction to our residents and their work through a Q&A-style interview. Interview originally conducted on July 22, 2026 by Dana Randall, Communications and Alumni Relations Manager at Chicago Artists Coalition.
Q: Do you have any common themes running through your most recent works in progress?
A: I feel that there’s a shared tone. There is a general awareness in the way I process the everyday that isn’t necessarily related to art or artmaking. Those everyday social experiences, especially the incongruencies within them, are what will potentially inform my pieces. With my work, basically everything relies on context, and I am there in the middle, juggling with whatever those interactions might trigger. There’s no fixed topic. It’s more about what sticks with me from an interaction, and from there, I start building a more elaborate process.
Q: How has your work evolved since being in the CAC residency?
A: I had opportunities to develop more site-specific work. Way back in Chile, I was mostly doing music work. Later, I realized how acoustics behave differently in every space. It’s as much about the sound you’re playing as it is about the space being activated by it. There was always this notion of space, but I wasn’t acknowledging it at all. It was more like a consequence. During this residency, I was invited to different projects that pushed me to think about the site and to build from it.
I like projects that challenge the way I approach the act of making. They trigger so many interesting conversations around my work. I did an installation titled Gargantas, which was presented as part of an exhibition curated by Alexis de Chaunac and Brooke Hummer within the context of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Then, I was invited by Denny Mwaura and Lorelei Stewart to be part of Imagination Doctors at Gallery 400, an exhibition celebrating Pros Arts Ensemble. Founded in 1978 in Pilsen, Pros Arts Ensemble revolutionized Chicago’s art and education scene through free, community-based workshops and performances. For the exhibition, I created an interactive sound installation titled Eso que era un no, ahora es un sí / What Used to Be a No Is Now a Yes.
From the perspective of someone who is relatively new to Chicago, these two projects invited me to engage with histories and spaces that existed here before I did. They presented the interesting challenge of figuring out where I place myself within that conversation.
Q: What are some of your biggest artistic influences? Where do you find inspiration?
A: That’s an interesting question. I get so inspired by things that are maybe outside the world of “fine arts”. I am really obsessed with the experience of video games as a thing. I am not talking about video games in the sense of technology being applied to something. It’s more about the intense world-building around whatever the topic is, and I feel that is really unique.
There are many things that I find really interesting to learn about and digest, and to find ways of infiltrating into more traditional exhibition spaces. It’s the same with anime, you know? I try to grab onto those things and process them in a way that can inform what I’m doing, even though they might not be connected at all to the actual work in the end.
On the more artistic side, for like two years, I’ve been really interested in the work of this American-Chilean artist, Gordon Matta-Clark. I also connect with the idea of reshaping spaces and with what happens when information is removed from a structure. I guess this amazing ability to remove, as opposed to add, has become a main focus when I’m thinking about form. So that’s maybe a more specific influence.
Q: Tell me about your favorite mediums. What about them speaks to you?
A: I’m not obsessed with any particular medium. The medium is something that comes much later in my process. I’ve been thinking a lot about the kind of natural workflow that I’ve started to develop here. It usually starts with a first interaction. I feel intercepted by something, and then I start thinking about all these different encounters that I’ve experienced over the course of a week, a month, a year, or so.
From there, I start making all sorts of connections, maybe with something that already happened, maybe with language, maybe with social positions or hierarchies. You know? A conversation that might seem like a really simple one, starts to reveal a more complex set of codes. And this is all happening way before it becomes an artwork. Then I have all these questions, some more historical and others more personal. That’s the longest part of my process.
What is the actual thing that I’m interested in articulating from that whole situation? And from there, which medium would work best? That’s why I’m always learning new techniques. For example, this installation is about space and movement, and in order to make that happen, I had to learn about robotics. But it’s not that I’m interested in robotics as a medium over others. I feel that the medium that is most interesting to me is the one that can act as a partner in trying to expose the things I’m experiencing.
I’m making decisions with that knowledge in the same way that I’m making decisions about color, shape, or materials. It keeps things fun and interesting. And there’s this dynamic where I have no idea how I’m going to make the final work every time I start a project.
Q: Do you have a favorite time of day to create? How does the time you find or choose to make influence your practice?
A: I feel really lucky with my regular job. I’m the assistant to this incredible artist, Lou Mallozzi. He’s the founder of Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, and I met him at SAIC. It’s an interesting job because I get to work with his archive, as well as help prepare and install work. So, one part of my week is spent working with the history of sound-related work, and the rest of the time is spent on my own practice.
I’m a morning person. If I can be in the studio early in the day, for me, that’s amazing. I feel that I’m pretty traditional in the way I distribute my time. So if I can be at home by 4 pm with the feeling that I accomplished something, that’s great. But I don’t know if the actual time of day really shapes my work. I feel that it’s more about having a space and a sense of the project as it develops, and how that overall structure gives meaning to the process.
Q: In keeping with our values, one thing we want to do is cultivate a community of knowledge-sharing. What is something you would encourage other artists to learn about? What is something that made a difference in your career?
A: There is so much to gain from stages that you try to avoid in life, like confusion, stress, or emergencies. You know? They can be really informative. At the end of the day, I feel that pushing the boundaries of stability is something that I kind of encourage.
There is something about getting lost that makes other things appear. It won’t necessarily be a result that you find out the next day, but something will happen there. It’s that moment when you’re like, I lost my sense of where I was going.
Q: Do you have a personal philosophy relating to your practice or your life?
A: You should be nice to animals. It’s not specifically related to art, but I do feel that it reveals so much about someone, the way you behave toward the space you inhabit, and toward nature in general. It’s extremely random, but I think it’s important, though.
Also, knowing when to open up your process, and knowing when to close it. Even though you might want to talk about it, sometimes there are things you’re creating that need some time to flesh out, or that need to remain as secrets.
Website: mauriciolopezf.com
Instagram: @mauriciolopezfernandez
You can view Mauricio’s work at his group show opening on Friday, October 30, 2026 from 5-8pm at Chicago Artists Coalition alongside Gabriel Moreno and Pablo Lazala Ruiz, curated by Serena JV Elston.