Internationally acclaimed artist Roberto Lugo to present at Munson Museum of Art

Utica, N.Y. — Hear internationally acclaimed ceramic artist Roberto Lugo discuss his career at Munson Museum of Art as he presents the Easton Pribble Lecture Series at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21, in the Museum’s Sinnott Family–Bank of Utica Auditorium in downtown Utica. This event is free and open to the public.

Lugo, known for his bold, highly decorative works that reference historical forms, creates defiant, genre-mixing sculpture that confronts the function and subject matter of high art from Classical Antiquity, East Asia, the Italian Renaissance, Europe, and beyond. Using clay as his canvas, Lugo calls attention to intergenerational experiences of injustice while celebrating contemporary African American and Latino culture.

Using clay as an artistic medium is important to Lugo because of its connection to time and culture. Over the course of history, finely-crafted ceramic objects stood as symbols of class, privilege, and the aristocracy. Lugo creates a new, more contemporary mode of storytelling that blends stories of everyday life and portraiture with time-honored forms.

Lugo’s work can be found in major art museums around the world, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Brooklyn Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Munson Museum of Art’s collection. His sculpture “The Day We Had Church and Tires Were Stolen” (2023) is currently on view in Munson’s Fountain Elms parlor, and the Museum has also commissioned a major new work from the artist, consisting of multiple parts, that will replace historical pieces with pieces of Lugo’s own creation referencing local community figures and culture.

Roberto Lugo holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Penn State. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2019 Pew Fellowship, a Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize, a US Artist Award, and most recently the prestigious Heinz Award for the Arts.

For media inquiries, please contact Katie Voce, communications manager, at 315-797-0000 ext. 2147 or via email at kvoce@munson.art.