MIAMI, FLA.- The eyes are the window of the soul. This aphorism implies a connection between the seen and the unseen, and speaks to the sometimes uneasy link between the visible and incorporeal. Connections such as these are laid bare in J. Tomás López: The Portrait Series, a new body of work by this well-established artist, which is on view at the Lowe from May 25 to September 17, 2017.

Rendered in soft focus, Lopez’s works are characterized by the hazy blending of the facial features, hair, and clothing of their sitters, who are set against abstracted tawny-amber backgrounds. Yet the subjects’ eyes—whether open or shut—are revealed in intense, hyper-focused detail. The viewer is thus brought face-to-face with López’s sitters, key figures in Miami’s arts and cultural arenas, in intimate moments that feel almost confessional in nature.

“Lopez’s work allows us to penetrate the personalities of his sitters, many of whom are cultural icons in our region,” comments Jill Deupi, Beaux Arts Director and Chief Curator of the Lowe Art Museum. “Through his deft touch, the artist creates an intimate dialogue between subject and viewer, artfully conjuring a sense of connection that feels shockingly intense and personal. The Lowe is delighted to present this new body of work.”

Drawing from his personal pantheon of artist heroes, López’s work evokes the powerful imagery of 19th-century master portrait photographers like Nadar (Gaspar Félix Tournachon) and Julia Margaret Cameron. The series exemplifies Lopez’s acute interest in the continuation of formal photographic processes through carbon printing, which produces very beautiful, high-quality images that are rich in pigment and outstanding in visual resolution; a quality easily confused with modern-day digital technology. The portrait series signals time and space, windows to the development of the photographic process past and present, a lens focused on the intense and exact moment, when through the eyes, we are confronted with the soul.

“Lopez’s series reminds us of the importance of dialogue; in an era of digital fixation and human disconnect, it is refreshing to come face-to-face with his subjects, leaving the viewer with a desire to know more about them, creating the initial connection and starting-point for interest,” comments Eugenia Incer, Assistant Director, Collection and Exhibition at the Lowe Art Museum and curator of The Portrait Series.

J. Tomás López is a Professor in the Department of Art and Art History and the Head of Electronic Media at the University of Miami. His work has been showcased in more than three hundred group and thirty-five solo exhibitions, nationally and internationally. López’s work is also held in the permanent collections of a number of prominent public institutions, including the Smithsonian, the National Museum of American Art and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.