Gil Lopez is a resident artist under the 2025 National Endowment of The Arts (NEA) Our Town grant awarded to Habitable Spaces to help further the development of arts and culture in the city of Kingsbury.

Lopez will be hosting two workshops over the duration of his residency.

Gil’s Artist Statement

Gil Lopez is a New York City-based urbanist, artist, urban farmer and eco-educator. Lopez has an extensive education in landscape and urban design, having received his bachelor’s in landscape design from Mississippi State University in 2003, as well as a certification in Urban Permaculture Design from Green Phoenix University in 2011. He has been a spearhead in the development and growth of Smiling Hogshead Ranch, an agriculture farm and community garden located in Queens, NY. 

As an environmental educator and activist, Gil Lopez creates earth-based installations and works within land-based movements to produce socially engaged art and bioremediation outcomes. Working with multiple stakeholders, including more-than-human entities, Gil creates opportunities to engage with and activate space and time. By promoting collaborations between people, plants, soil and other life, Gil’s work defines participation in ways that both challenge and broaden common (mis)understandings of society, ecosystems and our place within them. There is a sense of hopeful joy which grows out of participation in Gil’s art, which is generally lost on the passive viewer.

Lopez annually visits Habitable Spaces in the winter.  He has worked on the farm at Habitable Spaces in the past, tending the trees and landscape. He also teaches an annual Biochar workshop during his time here.

Keep Up With Gil

Website– https://verdantcities.wordpress.com