Michael Lucero

Download or read book Michael Lucero written by Mark Richard Leach and published by Hudson Hills. This book was released on 1996 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lucero's colorful, imaginative sculptures and ceramics synthesize diverse forms and influences?bottle trees and face jugs inspired by African art; a hanging ram and blood-red sacred hearts with roots in Mexico; looming stick figures suggestive of Native American rock art; delicate totem poles that evoke Pacific Northwest Indian cultures. Hybrid animals, found objects, jug-headed infants in baby carriages and dreamers who externalize the contents of their dreams in multilayered glazes animate the work of this California-born artist, now living in New York. Cataloging a traveling exhibition that opened at the Mint Museum of Art (Charlotte, N.C.), this volume reproduces 47 of Lucero's glazed ceramic, bronze and mixed-media creations in full-page color plates. Co-curator Bloemink finds pervasive echoes of surrealism and Dada in Lucero's improvisations. Art historian Lippard relates his themes of intercultural exchange to his family history; his ancestors, practicing Sephardic Jews, escaped persecution in Spain by migrating to New Mexico. Also included is an interview with Lucero by Leach, the exhibit's curator. 74 colour & 58 b/w illustrations