Mission Artist Yolanda López Receives $50,000 Latinx Artist Fellowship.

San Francisco CA

15 July, 2021

3:37 PM

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By Clara-Sophia Daly, Mission Local July 15, 2021 Yolanda López trying on a chain necklace at her home in the Mission District. Photo by Clara-Sophia Daly.Artist Yolanda López, 79, has been awarded a $50,000 fellowship from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation as part of it's new Latinx Artist Fellowship. "The first thing I thought about is that I would have some funds to do my archiving!" exclaimed López over the phone the day she received the fellowship. At the time, she hadn't fully read through the email, but was grateful to have been awarded the fellowship. López is a San Francisco based artist who is known for her depictions of the Virgen de Guadalupe, in which she reimagined the Virgen as an older woman, a feminist icon, and as her own self-portrait. López said that a few months back the organization called her and spoke to her, asked for a bio and a picture, and told her they would let her know if she would be chosen among the 200 Latino artists nominated. She said she likes the fellowship because it wasn't competitive. "That's the great joy, that I didn't have to compete with anyone else. They accepted me on my own terms." Adriana Zavala, professor of art history and director of the United States Latinx Art Forum, the administrative nonprofit that has partnered with the Mellon and Ford Foundation, said she was thrilled when she saw the list of artists in the inaugural cohort. Zavala says the fellowship is about "lifting up artists who have made an incredible contribution to the history of art." López agreed. "This is extremely important especially since my generation is beginning to die," said López, who plans to use the money to organize her life's work into an archive which can serve as a tool for educating the public. One of the goals of the fellowship is to increase visibility around Latinx artists beyond the word of Chicano or Latinx art, and into the public eye. "The issues that she's worked on are cross cutting…they're about the women's women's experience, they're about cultural marginalization, they're about breaking free of strangleholds." Zavala says she was happy to learn that the nomination committee, which consists of seven curators with expertise in Latino art, chose López. The fellowship provides $50,000 in funding to 15 Latino artists per year over the next five years, according to the US Latinx Art Forum. A lot of people know nothing about the Chicano movement, said López. "What I am interested in, is having [the archive of art] be useful and intellectually provocative," she added. "Because I have found that I still have that power." To learn more about the fellowship and the other artists who were awarded money this year, click here. Mission Local covers San Francisco from the vantage point of the Mission, a neighborhood with all of the promise and problems of a major city. You can support Mission Local here.