Roberto Lugo: Reimagining traditional ceramics with a 21st-century street sensibility

Engage with Roberto Lugo, a renown Philadelphia-based artist, ceramicist, social activist, poet, and educator. Lugo highlights themes of poverty, inequality, and racial injustice in his creative practice, blending classical pottery forms with portraiture and surface design reminiscent of his North Philadelphia upbringing and Hip Hop culture. In this talk, Lugo will share his unique path to art and how his practice has evolved over the last several years. 

From graffiti to Sévrés porcelain, Lugo recontextualizes craft through the lens of social justice, celebrating culture, and reclaiming space in the arts and beyond. In addition to his studio practice and extensive museum exhibitions, Lugo founded a design brand called Village Potter and most recently launched a collection at Walmart for Hispanic Heritage Month 2024 in collaboration with The Nuevolution Project.  

Opening musical welcome by artists Salome Agbaroji ’27 and Elyse Martin-Smith ’25, with welcome from Kathy King, director of the Office for the Arts Ceramics Program.

Presented as part of Office for the Arts at Harvard’s Learning From Performers program.