Roberto Lugo

Roberto Lugo is a Philadelphia-based artist, ceramicist, social activist, poet, and educator, holding a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Penn State. Lugo utilizes classical pottery forms in conjunction with portraiture and surface design. The pieces informed his North Philadelphia upbringing and hip-hop culture, highlighting themes of poverty, inequality, and racial injustice. Lugo’s works utilize traditional European and Asian ceramic techniques reimagined with a 21st-century street sensibility. Their hand-painted surfaces feature traditional decorative patterns and motifs combined with elements of modern urban graffiti and portraits of individuals whose faces are historically absent on this type of luxury item — people like Sojourner Truth, Dr. Cornel West, and the Notorious BIG, as well as Lugo’s family members and, very often, himself.

www.robertolugostudio.com