Biography
Roberto Lugo is an American artist, ceramicist, social activist, poet, and educator. Lugo uses porcelain as his medium of choice, illuminating its aristocratic surface with imagery of poverty, inequality, and social and racial injustice. Lugo’s works are multicultural mash-ups, traditional European and Asian porcelain forms and techniques reimagined with a 21st-century street sensibility. Lugo is the recipient of the 2019 Rome Prize, and was awarded a 2019 Pew Fellowship. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The High Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, The Walters Museum of Art, and more. (Statement courtesy of Wexler Gallery)
Artist Statement
Roberto Lugo is an artist, ceramicist, activist, spoken-word poet, and educator. Lugo uses porcelain, a traditionally precious material, as his medium of choice, illuminating its aristocratic surface with imagery of poverty, inequality, and social and racial injustice. The hand-painted surfaces feature classic decorative patterns and motifs combined with elements of modern urban graffiti and portraits of individuals whose faces are historically underrepresented in the context of art history – people like Sojourner Truth, Dr. Cornel West, and The Notorious BIG, as well as Lugo’s family members and, very often, himself.
More information about Roberto can be found at: robertolugostudio.com