ROBERTO LUGO: POTTERY WITH PURPOSE
Beginning June 10th, 2022 the Hermitage Museum will feature ceramic artist Roberto Lugo for a four-month solo exhibition. Lugo is an artist, activist, educator, poet, and the founder of Village Potter. He is most recognized for his hand thrown ceramic work that contrasts traditional ceramic forms such as porcelain teapots and urns with subject matter that is culturally and politically motivated. The exhibition will focus on his work that celebrates and examines current and historic figures who have made an impact in social justice and race relation issues and reflect on his multicultural and BIPOC experiences. As an expert in many forms, he combines many mediums into one project. From designing and creating the shipping containers for his ceramics, to a custom Nike Air Force 1 collaboration that includes hand-made ceramic tongues tiles and lace dubrae, also packaged in a unique custom box with ceramic details, his multicultural mashups, as he references, reimagine traditional forms and techniques with a 21st century street sensibility. This exhibition will highlight Lugo’s relevancy and nuanced artistic abilities, to include ceramics, murals, visual art, and installations. It will focus on him as a purposeful artist who weaves all his abilities into a creative brand focused on disruption and evolution in the art world.
Roberto Lugo holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Penn State, and is a professor of ceramics at Tyler School of Art. He is a 2015 National Council on Education in Ceramic Arts Emerging Artist and has participated in residencies at Penland School of Craft, The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, and Baltimore Clayworks. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The High Museum of Art, and many others.
