Pew Fellow Michelle Lopez is a multimedia artist whose sculptural work is immersive and large in scale, filling up gallery spaces with assemblages of construction materials like glass, wood, and steel rope. Her art offers an abstract view on contemporary life and the complex forces that drive it, from industrialization to technology.

Lopez’s installation Pandemonium, a Center-supported project that opened jointly at Moore College of Art & Design and The Franklin Institute’s Fels Planetarium in Fall of 2025, uses 4D video to transport viewers into the eye of a virtual tornado. Looking up, they’re surrounded by a swirl of cultural debris like articles of clothing, scraps of flags, and newspapers emblazoned with headlines about pivotal political and social moments from the past century. On a metaphorical level as well as a tangible one, Lopez uses the piece to comment on the torrent of modern media, as well as the complexity of both meteorological and man-made disasters. At its opening event, the video was complemented by a live score.

As she prepares for future showings of Pandemonium and her other solo work, Lopez took time to answer questions about the project, its relationship with the forces it critiques, and her creative practice. Read the full interview here.