Michael Lucero

During his early period Michael Lucero made composite sculptures using hundreds of thin, hand-made tiles which were attached to wire frames. Often these would be human figures, but sometimes animal forms. Already in these early works, one can see combinations of human/animal, culture/nature, architecture/organism that have remained an element in Lucero's subsequent work. In his next 'Dreamer' series, Lucero made Pink Nude Dreamer, which consists of the head form that Lucero repeatedly 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. Lady with Roots (reverse)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. 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. Anthropomorphic Urn with Dragonfly, 2002This is especially the case in his 'Earth Images' installation. Here we are presented with the Hercules Beetle of 1986 (pictured left). The fantastic, upright beetle is distorted and again surreal, painted with images of trees on the one hand and míro-like color fields on the other. Here, nature and culture collide. A closer inspection of the head reveals a pale, haunting ghost-like figure and scenery, perhaps suggesting stories of Native American medicine men or their people's beliefs. The overall effect is one of a bio-morphic enigma of disparate elements that nonetheless has a naturalness about it. Lucero pays homage to the pueblo in his 'Pre-Columbus' series, which consists of distorted seated figures, glazed in bright colors and painted with environmental scenes juxtaposed with screaming heads and pueblo pottery. Pre-columbian art contrasts with classical and modern painting traditions. The bar code and the tea-pot create a reference to the modern world and in a sense pre-empt Lucero's next series, the 'New World' series (e.g. Lady with Roots, pictured top left), which deals with the radical changes Columbus' discovery of the New World inflicted on the continent.
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Title: Kangaroo

Artist: Michael Lucero

Massive Sculpture from The Cast series, "Kangaroo," New York, 2003; Hand-built earthenware, applied wool, acrylic yarn; Signed Lucero; 38" x 24 1/2" x 18" Excellent condition

Title: Tureen Headed Dog

Artist: Michael Lucero

Lucero is as renowned for his painterly abstractions and surrealism as his ceramics, and ‘Tureen Headed Dog Pair's' striking appearance finds itself in the shock of colour applied in underglaze and sgraffito as a skin. Lucero’s common interest in colliding elements of pop & surrealist art lends an air of plasticky unreality to the piece, the childish appeal of the elf and its kitschy, “yarn-covered”  Lambie-esque finish looks as though popped fresh out of a cartoon — the rounded, bulbous ceramic form impressive for resting such a large squat head on a slight body. His practice with clay has been cited as fine art reflected at a larger and more fluid scale, incorporating and evoking archaeology, home crafts and overlooked portions of folk art or popular culture.

Title: Tureen Headed Dog

Artist: Michael Lucero

Lucero is as renowned for his painterly abstractions and surrealism as his ceramics, and ‘Tureen Headed Dog Pair's' striking appearance finds itself in the shock of colour applied in underglaze and sgraffito as a skin. Lucero’s common interest in colliding elements of pop & surrealist art lends an air of plasticky unreality to the piece, the childish appeal of the elf and its kitschy, “yarn-covered”  Lambie-esque finish looks as though popped fresh out of a cartoon — the rounded, bulbous ceramic form impressive for resting such a large squat head on a slight body. His practice with clay has been cited as fine art reflected at a larger and more fluid scale, incorporating and evoking archaeology, home crafts and overlooked portions of folk art or popular culture.

Title: Untitled

Artist: Michael Lucero

Ceramic with wool and acrylic yarn 50.5"h x 18"w x 23"d

Title: Venus

Artist: Michael Lucero

MICHAEL LUCERO (b. 1953) "Venus" sculpture (Reclamation series),1990s; Glazed and painted ceramic, reclaimed chalkware sculpture, stone base, steel; Signed; Approx.: 40" x 17" x 12" Sculpture is in two parts: the glazed and painted ceramic pots lift off of the nude sculpture. Base is in "found" condition

Title: Young Lady with Ohr Hair

Artist: Michael Lucero

The Pre-Columbian figures have a special place in Lucero’s oeuvre, bringing out the full range of his palette and sculptural inventiveness. The figure’s hair is an homage to the ruffled pots of the eccentric 19th-20th century Biloxi potter, George E. Ohr. Reference: Exhibited on the Michael Lucero Sculpture 1976-1995, organized by the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC and traveled to various venues between 1996 and 1998. This work has two full page illustrations in the accompanying book as well as the cover images front and back, Barbara J Bloemink and Mark Richard Leach (with essay by Lucy R. Lippard) Michael Lucero Sculpture 1976-1995, New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996.

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