Rafael López (born August 8, 1961 in Mexico City, Mexico) is an award-winning illustrator and artist. His 2008 poster "Voz Unida" was selected by the Obama/Biden campaign as an official poster at Artists for Obama. He created seven stamps for the United States Postal Service. As a children’s book illustrator, he won the 2010 Pura Belpré illustration award for Book Fiesta! and is also the recipient of 2 Américas Book Awards and a Pura Belpré honor in 2007 and 2004.
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In Mexico City, López attended the Manuel Bartolome Cossio where he began drawing and painting at an early age. Both his parents were architects and teachers at UNAM. When he was 10 years old, they sent him to Exeter, England to live for a year with Mexican-born conceptual and performance artist Felipe Ehrenberg. There he explored drawing and learned to make books and use a printing press. In 1982 he left Mexico to study illustration at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
After college he worked as an illustrator in Los Angeles and later moved to an industrial loft building in the East Village of downtown San Diego. There he became involved in social design projects, founding the Urban Art Trail project and painting large scale murals. A lifelong passion for books eventually led him to pursue children’s book illustration.
Growing up in Mexico City Rafael López was immersed in the rich cultural heritage and native color of street life. Influenced by Mexican surrealism, dichos and myths he developed a style with roots in this tradition. Using bold colors, his textured work is a fusion of graphic style and magical symbolism. López likes to find objects and symbols to communicate concepts. He paints with acrylic paints that come in large jars from Mexico and uses a variety of objects to scratch textures onto hand-cut and sanded wooden boards.
His international clients include Amnesty International, Apple, Charlesbridge Publishing, Chicago Tribune, Harper Collins, IBM, Intel, Lee & Low books, Los Angeles Times, the Grammy Awards, and the World Wildlife Fund and his work has been selected into multiple juried shows.
His illustrations for Book Fiesta! written by Pat Mora were the recipient of the 2010 Pura Belpré Illustration Award given by the American Library Association to honor work that best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in children's books.
Additional books, My Name is Celia, Me Llamo Celia written by Monica Brown and Yum! Mmm! Que Rico! by Pat Mora won 2 Américas Book Awards and a Pura Belpré Honor for illustration.
In a grassroots effort he created a poster called Nuestra Voz that was printed with friends and distributed to key swing states in an effort to win the pivotal Latino vote for democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama. The poster was brought to the attention of the national campaign by field workers and his 2008 poster Voz Unida was selected by the Obama/Biden campaign as an official poster at Artists for Obama. This poster became part of a series of ten limited edition art prints created and donated by artists to support the presidential campaign of United States President Barack Obama and were sold to raise campaign funds through his official website.
In 2010 he created a series of 5 stamps for the United States Postal Service featuring Latino Music Legends Celia Cruz, Carlos Gardel, Carmen Miranda, Tito Puente and Selena.
His 2007 U.S.P.S. stamp celebrated an important legal case in equality of education called Mendez vs. Westminster.
The Let’s Dance: Merengue stamp he created for the United States Postal Service was featured on the cover of the commemorative stamp yearbook in 2006 and at a special exhibition at the Smithsonian called Trendsetters.
In 2009 he was asked to create 3 paintings for Oprah Winfrey's school in South Africa and presented them to her at the National Association for Independent Schools conference in Chicago.
In 1997 he envisioned and led the Urban Art Trail Project that transformed San Diego's blighted East Village with colorful murals, sculptures and art installations and serves as a model of urban renewal that has been implemented in cities around the nation. His murals can be found throughout downtown San Diego, at the San Diego office of the American Federation of Teachers and at public elementary schools including the San Diego Cooperative Charter School.
Rafael López lives in San Diego, California and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with Candice López, his wife of 20 years and a son Santiago.