Beschreibung:

Roach Vase Glazed stoneware with raised decorative motifs of cockroaches, $ signs, marijuana leaves, microphones, rats, chains, and boomboxes in geometric patterns throughout, the covered vase surmounting a separate base, executed in 2022, overall dimensions with base 23 by 10 in. (58.4 x 25.4 cm.), in overall excellent condition.Catalogue noteORIGINAL ROACH VASE WITH BY THE SELF-PROCLAIMED "VILLAGE POTTER" WHO MARRIES THE AESTHETICS AND SYMBOLOGY OF HIP HOP WITH THE TIME-HONORED TRADITIONS OF CERAMIC ART Roberto Lugo is a Philadelphia-based artist, ceramicist, social activist, poet, and educator. Lugo utilizes classical pottery forms in conjunction with portraiture and surface design reminiscent of his North Philadelphia upbringing and Hip Hop culture to highlight themes of poverty, inequality, and racial injustice. Lugo’s works are multicultural mash-ups; traditional European and Asian ceramic techniques reimagined with a 21st-century street sensibility. Their hand-painted surfaces feature classic 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. The current lot, Roach Vase, is a prime example of Lugo's oeuvre. The work is executed in a deceptively classic, covered shape harkening back to traditional Asian ceramics, yet emboldened by the present with a myriad of popular motifs associated with urban life and Hip Hop iconography such as chains, rats, cockroaches, $ signs, crosses, rats, and marijuana leaves. The overall effect is striking. Lugo dares the viewer to contend with contemporary symbols of power and success, almost begging the question: what will remain when that power and success is gone? The overall effect is strikingly two-fold: while celebrating the current cultural moment, Lugo reframes that moment by placing it in a historical context with shape and color, or lack thereof. It is a piece grounded firmly in the present while looking back to the models of the past. Lugo holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Penn State. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, among others. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2019 Pew Fellowship, a Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize, and a US Artist Award. His work is found in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The High Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Brooklyn Museum, Walters Art Museum, and more. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia, PA. Provenance:Courtesy of the artist Literature: Ted Loos and Mohamed Sadek "His First Art was Graffiti. Now his Pottery is in the Met." In The New York Times, 21 October, 2021. (Accessed 26 March, 2022) Condition Report:To request a