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MICHAEL LUCERO By: Regina Faraj
Born in Tracy, California, he earned a BA degree from Humboldt State University in 1975. In 1978, he earned an MFA at the University of Washington in Seattle. Soon after, he settled in New York when Minimalism was dominant in the art scene. Some of his work such as "Lizard Slayer," reflects that movement. He taught briefly at New York University and the Parsons School of Design. In the late 1980s, he turned from polychrome clay to cast metal and then began to incorporate both mediums. Generally he sees his work as "reverence for high art, affection for folk art, nostalgia for nature, and curiosity about other cultures." Biography
At an early age, Michael Lucero made complex and fused sculptures using several lean, hand-made tiles which were attached to wire frames. He often chose to do human figures, but sometimes he varied into animal forms. Already in these early works, one can see combinations of human/animal, culture/nature, architecture/organism that have remained an component in Lucero's ensuing work. Once Lucero committed to working primarily in clay, he was determined to grant it the primacy traditionally given oil paint or marble. This implicit faithfulness to the integrity of his material permeates all his work.
Lucero's interest in the Native American Pueblo dates back to his childhood travels from California to relatives in New Mexico. Here he would come into contact with American Natives and their culture. Native American rugs, jewelry, sculpture and ceramics would come to influence Lucero in his later life. The Californian and New Mexican environment also supplied the artist with a rich abundance of animal life, especially reptiles and amphibians that he loved as a child and employed in his imagery later in life. From the beginning of his career, Lucero challenged the perceived limitations of his chosen material—clay. His definition of "fine art" was not limited to paint and canvas, stone, metal, or wood. Instead, as is the case in many non-Anglo cultures, for Lucero the concept of fine art equally defines archeology, including ceramic-based vessels and figural forms.
In his 'Dreamer' series, Lucero made Pink Nude Dreamer, which consists of the head form that Lucero constantly uses for this series. It is decorated with a range of painted scenes reflecting Lucero's early undergraduate training in painting at Humboldt State University in California. Employing painted underglazes and sgraffito on a shape that doesn't directly relate to the imagery, we see typical painterly elements of Lucero's work that he has become so well known for. One cannot but help getting a distinct feeling of surrealism here. The fantastic images Lucero paints on his forms seem to spring from the sub-conscious and speak to sub-conscious strands of the viewers mind.
The imagery that slides in and out of the complex glazes of this master of the ceramic medium is art about art, art about place, art about self. The consistent strength of the work comes from a fusion of ceramic tradition with sculptural innovation, and from a combination of extraordinarily fine technique, keen wide-ranging intelligence, and the resonance brought to bear by past associations, cultures, and use. Lucero’s maverick vision presented the artist with challenges unlike any he imagined. Lucero was immersed in figuration at a time when Minimalism, performance, and earth art were among the dominant and critically accepted art forms.
Taken as a whole, Lucero’s artworks contain three core elements: an ecumenical borrowing from the history of art of various cultures, a persistent metaphorical and physical movement between interior and exterior structures and spaces, and a faithfulness to the ceramic medium. An ardent admirer of global culture, he often incorporates specific stylistic references to one culture or another into his work, creating complex, hybrid forms. Throughout his career, he was discouraged by many in the art world from describing those interests in his work. But he persevered, and the stunning results of this career-long odyssey are a provocative and enduring body of sculpture that illustrates the fluid, dynamic character of global culture.
While at first glance his work appears to be a vigorous example of contemporary ceramic sculpture, with a background in 1960s California art and a foreground in New York eclecticism, in fact his figurative forms borrow liberally and wittily from the history of art of various cultures, including pre-Columbian and Native American; the European avant-garde; African-based forms; and George Ohr ceramics, as well as the vernacular and mass media. Since the 1970s Lucero has consciously moved backwards and sideways through the history of art. His most recent work incorporates found objects of popular art and culture.
The artist’s creative reworking of multicultural forms and his exploration of such contrasting ideas as beauty and the grotesque, culture and nature, the sacred and the profane, ritual and accidental, and purity and contamination offer an authentic model of cultural pluralism. Technically, visually, and conceptually, Lucero’s work offers immediate access to alternate notions of originality and cultural relativity. The visual and formal diversity of his works is a metaphor for contemporary life and collective existence in which there is not one predominant culture, but many voices existing simultaneously.
THE SUN VASE BY: Regina Faraj This is a big size ceramic vase glazed in bright colors such as orange, red, and yellow; which represent the sun’s vibrant colors. This ceramic piece is very simple, but still contains the right elements to make it a beautiful work of art. The vase’s colors transmit a joyful sensation to the observer, and is as well a very symmetric and unique composition, consisting of a bottom piece and a handle.
SnowVase By: Regina Faraj The snow vase consists of a classical, simple style, inspired on a minimalistic art. Its pure white color gives it a touch of pureness, fragility and simplicity. It measures 15” H and 7” W, which makes it a unique structure.
BIBLIOGRAPHY • http://ceramicstoday.com/potw/lucero.htm • www.carnegiemuseums.org/.../marapr/feat6.htm • http://ceramicstoday.com/potw/lucero.htm • http://www.ragoarts.com/onlinecats/10.07MOD/0065.jpg • www.carnegiemuseums.org/.../marapr/feat6.htm • mountshang.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html
