born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, López is proud to be working in the long tradition of New Mexico santero artists. His high attention to detail has garnered him many awards and is highly esteemed as one of New Mexico’s most popular santero wood sculptures. He is a 2022 New Mexico Governor’s Award Recipient for Excellence in the Arts, the states highest honor for the arts, 2019 United States Artists Fellow in Traditional Arts and in 2017 he received The Folk Art Society of Americas Award of Distinction for giving the Santero Tradition a contemporary style and being a leader in design and meaning, In 2015 he was awarded the City of Santa Fe’s Mayor’s Award for excellence in the Arts ”My work comes out of my faith, I am a firm believer that you can still use traditional methods to create contemporary work. Though the majority of my work is of Saints you do not have to be of any particular religion to appreciate them as art." Equally important to López is his need to transcend the bounds of the traditional santero, and use his art as a medium for expressing the full range of his culture and the world around him. López has exhibited in numerous shows throughout the Southwest and is in many prominent museum collections throughout the country. His work has recently been exhibited internationally at the 2nd International Triennial of Kogei - “The Arts Grounded in Region”, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan, “Song of the West,” Kohi Kulturaum, Karlsruhe, Germany and “The Saints From a Land So Remote” - LAProjects, Landshut, Germany. Represented by King Galleries Santa Fe, NM & Scottsdale, AZ
“I try to capture with intentional ethical sensitivity and undaunted heart-felt commentary modern religious, secular and
political issues with humor and a breath of fresh air.”
— Arthur López
