At the end of Starr Street in downtown Corpus Christi sits a stairwell with painted walls offering a view beyond the veil. On concrete canvas, skeletons dance, ride bikes and play drums. This party of cartoon delight created with the help of homegrown muralist Gerald Lopez reflects the childlike energy his work has carried throughout his entire career.
“I made the face of a horse, a hat for the horse and I cut it out so it was a physical object,” Lopez said of his very first piece of art. “I didn’t really show it to anybody, but I liked having it around as something I created. I drew it, painted it, then cut it out as a 3D object. Start to finish, I did it by myself. I was so proud.”
In the decades since his handmade horse head, Lopez went from an audience of one to audiences in the thousands as his expansive career took him to galleries across the country. Known for his depictions of traditional Mexican culture, such as luchadores and loteria cards, alongside smaller projects like the bright portraits he paints over antique photographs, his work embodies all of himself—his identity, the culture of his hometown and his fun-loving personality.
“I try to make my work lighthearted,” he said. “I like to be playful in my work, just like I do in my personality. You can see it mostly in my photography pieces. It allows me to be freer than I would be painting or sculpting.”
Art in its many forms quickly became the shy and reserved Lopez’s preferred method of communication. Spending his tweens and teens experimenting with a variety of styles, he soon fell head over heels for the one he still practices today—surrealism.
“My art is somewhere between realism and surrealism,” he said. “I’ve always done surrealism, even when I was a little kid.”
Lopez graduated with an art degree from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi, looking to make a name for himself as a South Texan surrealist. Going on to the University of Delaware in pursuit of his master’s, his eventual return to Corpus Christi meant starting from scratch. He nestled inside K Space Contemporary’s studio space, a haven for creatives like himself in the heart of his hometown. With a loving community like the one inside K Space, it didn’t take long to find his new creative family.
“He’s my studio brother,” said Jimmy Peña, local artist and a lifelong friend of Lopez. “He’s not as open as I am; he’s a very quiet person. If you piss him off, you won’t know it until you get hit,” he laughed.
The pair spent hours on end working in the studio together when they first met, and decided to dedicate their time to fixing up the once dilapidated space in an attempt to invite new resident artists. Since then, the renovated studio has continuously boasted a full house.
Alongside his initial commitment and beautification of K Space, Lopez’s immersive Día de los Muertos mural, completed in 2011, which also involved Peña’s work, helped usher in the decade of change that hit downtown.
“Years ago, downtown used to be a very different place than it is now,” Lopez recalled. “As the area [remained stagnant], K Space continued to grow and helped anchor a lot of change. The Día de los Muertos Festival, mural projects and guest artists [we organize] are all part of the catalyst that helped the area grow. I look forward to still seeing that continue.”
Now fully blossomed as an instrumental figure in the local arts scene, over the last 15 years Lopez has served as studio manager for K Space, taught at three separate college campuses in the area and now works as a preparator for the Art Museum of South Texas, ensuring the safety of each invaluable piece that cycles through the galleries. Each of his past and current job titles, especially the delicate magic of handling artworks and their history, directly influences the way he views and approaches his own craft to this day.
As his time serving as creative leader for three different spots in the scene winds down, Lopez continues his work with artists of all backgrounds at K Space. Artist headshots line the walls leading up to this inner sanctum of creativity in the Coastal Bend, in reverence to all who ever ventured into the fully-booked studio. Lopez appears twice: In one shot, he looks into the lens, young and bright-eyed, the other, with a look of a seasoned artist. Both pictures will hang for the rest of the studio’s life, forever immortalizing the influence of the shy, surrealist superstar.
