He is an emerging artist in the Chicano art scene and has shown his work at museums and galleries in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City.
[5] After earning his BFA, he returned to East Los Angeles to a new home his father had bought, and there he continued to paint and draw while also working to develop his style.
series, Manuel Lopez wants you to see the Tongva land on which this L.A. handball court sits, a photo essay with descriptive text authored by the artist, of a site-specific outdoor drawing installation.
[16][17] López's work was included in the 2019 SUR:Biennial, Cuentista (storyteller), organized at the Río Hondo College Art Gallery.
Imagery included views of East L.A. such as City Terrace, Boyle Heights, and El Sereno, depicting run-down houses, a stranger lost in thought, crooked palm trees, a serene terrain that is ever-changing, and various man-made objects.
[20] The Vincent Price Museum show, Regeneración: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology , explored the transnational circulation of ideas and artistic practice between the U.S. and Mexico in relation to activism and revolution.
This created the effect of motion; the visuals were paired with sound to evoke feeling, such as the laughter of children, the ringing of bells, the passing of cars, and the barking of a dog.
"[26] The Boyle Heights Beat describes the sound track as a mix of "the jingle of paleteros selling their wares, birds chirping, traffic passing by.
"[26] In 2021, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority commissioned Lopéz to produce a new "tribute poster" for the transit system.