Michael Lucero's Effortless Eccentricity
Lucero was born in California and trained in painting, ceramics, and metalworking on the West Coast during the 1970s. His work teems with energy, riotous color, and a melding of personal, cultural, and artistic inspirations spanning centuries of time, all of which he effortlessly combines into a truly unique artistic vocabulary. Lucero’s Anthropomorphic works, for instance, draw from 19th century Afro-Carolinian ceramic jugs, boneless Mexican Nayarit-inspired limbs, found objects, surrealistic painting, and even his obsession with insects. He sometimes riffs on George Ohr with in-body twists and bright, sponged-on glazes; Dada in his Reclamation series, which subvert our expectations of art and everyday objects; and even our consumer society, evident in the barcodes painted on many of his pieces. Exciting, ambitious, and eccentric, Lucero’s works defy easy categorization and invite the viewer to immerse themselves in, and analyze, the personal and cultural dialogues they contain.


I prefer art which is jarring. I want people to think and rethink.
Michael Lucero