Shadow of a Doubt traces sculptor and installation artist Michelle Lopez’s longstanding interest in visibility—and invisibility—which she has explored over the past two decades. Using industrial materials like aluminum, rope, and glass, Lopez creates strikingly precario
us and vulnerable forms that speak to the instability of supposedly fixed or rigid societal structures. Reinvesting in the political power of sculpture, Lopez similarly wrestles with the medium’s legacy, recasting minimalist and post-minimalist forms into critiques of capitalism, chauvinism, and other narratives of hegemony.
Shadow of a Doubt presents Lopez’s drawing practice for the first time in extensive dialogue with new and existing sculptures, which Lopez often describes as lines in space made from rope and metal. Also included in the exhibition are video and sound installations that operate around and above our understanding of objecthood. Altogether, these works underscore her interest in the barely visible, prompting us to consider who in society is rendered invisible by institutions, governments, and other systems of authority.
In lieu of our global state of precarity, Lopez makes it clear that we are—all of us, including the hidden and the unseen—standing squarely in the looming shadows of doubt.
Michelle Lopez: Shadow of a Doubt is organized by TUAG director Dina Deitsch and supported by Girlfriend Fund and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Shadow of a Doubt is accompanied by Halyard, a yearlong sound and sculptural installation in the adjacent Remis Sculpture Court, on view September 2025–June 2026.
Artist Resources/Interviews
Michelle Lopez, Smoke Cloud VIII, 2016, tempered architectural glass, ultraviolet light, tin, silver nitrate, varnish, wood, 80 x 96in. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Christophe Gaillard.
Michelle Lopez (b. 1970, Bridgeport, CT, lives and works in Philadelphia, PA) holds an M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts, New York and a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University, New York. She was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019 and a Pew fellowship in 2023. She has taught at University of California Berkeley, Yale School of Art, the School of Visual Arts, and is Associate Professor of Sculpture & Installation in the Fine Arts Program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Lopez has had solo exhibitions at Commonwealth & Council, Los Angeles; the ICA Philadelphia; Simon Preston, Gallery; Alt/Protocinema, Istanbul; The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Connecticut; and LA><art, Los Angeles. She has also been part of notable group exhibitions including ones at the ICA Los Angeles; Ballroom Marfa; Fabric Workshop Museum, Philadelphia, ; Protocinema, Montreal/Istanbul/Philadelphia/Beirut/Antalya, ; Museum of Contemporary Art & Design, Manila, Philippines; the California Biennial, Orange County, CA; and MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY.
Key Questions/Questions for Guided Exploration
Michelle Lopez, BLUE ANGEL study, 2012, 24 x 18 inches. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo by: Caitlin Lent.
- How does Lopez use space, light, or materials to reveal or obscure meaning?
- Are there things in our world that go unseen – by choice or by design? How might Lopez’s art help us think about these absences?
- Lopez’s work draws from – but also pushes against – the tradition of minimalism, a movement often associated with masculine ideals of control, permanence, and formality. How does she challenge or subvert these traditional ideas of minimalism?
- How does Lopez use industrial materials to explore emotionality, vulnerability, or power?
- How does Lopez address broader social and political issues through abstracted, minimalist forms?