Kiko Lopez was born in 1962 in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, and grew up in Miami, Florida. He developed a mastery in ceramics at an early age, establishing his first atelier at fourteen. Throughout his teenage years he would experiment with wood, steel, and acrylic, creating sculptures under the watchful eye of sculptor Barry Massin, in Coconut Grove, Florida.
Lopez attended the University of Miami where he studied architecture under Liz Plater-Zyberk, and where he won the distinguished “Best Designer” award in his freshman year. After graduating he moved to New York briefly, working for Robert A.M. Stern, before returning to school, this time to RISD, for more study of architecture and industrial design. It was in Providence that he made his first forays into hand-blown glass.
After taking his degree, Lopez met his wife Ebba, who, in 1990, whisked him away to the Bonnieux, in the Provençal region of France. The pair opened an architectural office specializing in restoration, and Lopez, his own design atelier in Les Beaumettes.
Since establishing his studio (close to 30 years ago), Lopez has completed orders for furniture, objects, lights, and architectural elements (glass walls, screens, doors, and candlesticks), but has come to specialize in the design, manufacture, and installation of monumental works combining glass, crystal, and light.
Lopez’s upbringing fostered his keen sensitivity to the play of light, making his artistic transition to glass as medium natural. Both Puerto Rico and Florida, with their high contrast between light and shade, gave him an eye for the luminous, the translucent, and the opaque, and nourished his sense of line and form alike. Such has led him to the primary concentration of his dedicated studio work—the unique application of antique mirroring techniques, like the rare craft of Pâte de verre, and the creation one-of-a-kind tableaux in silver and glass.
Lopez has realized major commissions for the Cristalerie St. Louis, Le Musée de l'Homme, and Les Quatres Temps of La Défense, for prominent decorators, such as Alberto Pinto, Chahan Minassian, and Caroline Sarkozy, and for numerous private clients throughout Europe and the Americas.