Roberto Lugo segment
Roberto Lugo welcomes us to his neighborhood of Kensington in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He works as a potter, taking deep inspiration from his community, graffiti and Ancient Greek pottery, and values sharing his art with the public by throwing pots in parks and creating public works of art. Segment from the EAST episode.
Roberto Lugo’s poetry & Orange and Black vessels
Roberto Lugo on his poetry and his Orange and Black series exhibited at Art@Bainbridge, Princeton University Art Museum. Bonus video from the EAST episode.
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.
robertolugostudio.com
Tea for Two: The Teapots of Gloria and Sonny Kamm
Los Angeles collectors Sonny and Gloria Kamm have created a vast and wide-ranging collection centered on a single item, the teapot. It began as a search for interesting and fun teapots to place in their home. Their interests in contemporary art led them to collect and commission studio craft teapots by a wide range of artists. Envision a teapot made of perforated clay or another made of heavily embroidered fabric or even one made of metal mesh and pistachio shells! Form complicates function.
Gloria has called these concept teapots “delightfully useless” in terms of practical function. And yet in partnership with her husband Sonny, the Kamms see the function of a teapot less as a device for serving the legendary beverage, but rather as a celebrated vehicle for expression. The hospitable and iconic teapot has a 500-year history and has been widely and wildly interpreted by artists and production houses alike. Tea for Two will feature a curated selection giving insight into the inclinations and motivations of the couple. They are also featured in one of the newest Craft in America episodes, Collectors.
Gloria regards contemporary, one-of-a-kind teapots as “containers full of ideas” where the artist has transmuted, by their hands, their worries, celebrations or ponderings into the object. The wide scope of styles and materials in the curated selection will not only cause visitors to marvel, but to also give greater consideration to the structure of a teapot: pot, handle and spout. The irreverent and whimsical interpretations of these integral parts will provide entertaining musing for viewers of all ages.
Unique, one-of-a-kind teapots made by important contemporary designers, architects, painters, sculptors, ceramicists and craftspeople, often with a non-traditional approach to media, are the main thrust of this significant collection. The support that the Kamms have given to hundreds of artists through their purchases and commissions is immeasurable.
The Kamm Teapot Foundation is a non-profit that archives and catalogues the world’s largest and most comprehensive teapot collection of over 17,000 items. The Foundation is a charitable trust, with its purposes being to acquire, preserve, maintain and arrange for the exhibition of teapots, tea sets and teapot-related ephemera.
Image Gallery
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo by Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo by David H. Ramsey
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Victoria May
Ode to the Gypsy Tea Room, 1997 Photo courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Tony Cunha, courtesy of the Kamm Teapot Foundation.
Photo: Victoria May
Photo: Victoria May
Virtual Gallery
Click and drag, or use your arrow keys, to see a 360º view of the virtual space.
Joan Takayama-Ogawa segment
Ceramic artist Joan Takayama-Ogawa is a professor at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Joan uses her work in clay to respond to the ongoing climate emergency. Segment from SCIENCE episode.
Joseph & Sergio Youngblood Lugo segment
The Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico has been home to a long tradition of Native potters, including brothers Joseph and Sergio Youngblood Lugo. Joseph and Sergio demonstrate the ancestral firing technique that produces their unique polished pottery. Segment from SCIENCE episode.
Santa Clara Pueblo pottery
Joseph & Sergio Youngblood Lugo on Santa Clara Pueblo pottery. Bonus video from SCIENCE episode, streaming on the PBS App November 12, 2024. Premieres on PBS broadcast December 27, 2024.
Images courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration/John K. Hillers photo and King Galleries.
Peter Shire’s art and career
Learn more about Peter Shire‘s art and career. Bonus video from COLLECTORS episode streaming on the PBS App November 12, 2024. PBS broadcast premiere December 27, 2024.
Images courtesy of Peter Shire, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles/Joshua White photo and Charles White photo/JW Pictures, TheClipShop/Pond5, California Institute of the Arts Collection, Zanone.
Joan Takayama-Ogawa’s ceramic history
Artist and teacher Joan Takayama-Ogawa on her mentor, Ralph Bacerra and Joan’s family history in ceramics. Bonus video from SCIENCE episode, streaming on the PBS App November 12, 2024. Premieres on PBS broadcast December 27, 2024.
Images courtesy of Joan Takayama-Ogawa, Cindy Bass, image360 / Shutterstock, Camerique / Alamy, U.S. Office of War Information, National Archives and Records Administration / Clem Albers photo and Fred Clark photo and Francis Leroy Stewart photo and Dorothea Lange photo, Library of Congress / Russell Lee photo, Delphine Hirasuna.
Sustainability at Otis and Joan’s climate change course
Artist and teacher Joan Takayama-Ogawa on her climate change course at Otis College of Art and Design and Otis’ commitment to sustainability. Bonus video from SCIENCE episode, streaming on the PBS App November 12, 2024. Premieres on PBS broadcast December 27, 2024 (check local listings).
Images courtesy of Otis College of Art and Design.