The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 148

ARTISTS' BIOGRAPHIES

Lucero, Michael
American; (b. 1953, Tracy, CA; lives in Chattanooga, TN)
1978 MFA University of Washington, Seattle, WA
1975 BA Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA

Michael Lucero’s colorful ceramic works deftly combine painting and sculpture to create hybrid forms
that reflect and comment on contemporary society. Originally enrolled at Humboldt State University

SELECTED REFERENCES:
Garcia, Edith, and Robert

as a painter, Lucero experimented with a variety of mediums including printmaking, sculpture,

Silberman. Contemporary

and ceramics. During his graduate studies at the University of Washington, where he studied with

Monsters. Minneapolis:

Howard Kottler and Patti Warashina, Lucero began building hanging figures covered with hundreds

Northern Clay Center, 2009.

of ceramic shards. In 1978, the artist settled in New York City and without access to a kiln, began

Leach, Mark Richard. Michael

crafting his series of wooden hanging figures using found materials. Lucero’s interest in reviving

Lucero: Sculpture 1976–1995. New

discarded objects is a thread that runs through many of his sculptural series, notably Reclamation,

York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996.

Pre-Columbus, and the New World series. A mélange of sources have influenced Lucero’s oeuvre.
Childhood memories of visits to New Mexico took shape in Lucero’s Earth Images and in his Dreamer

Schwartz, Judith S. “Howard
Kottler: An Irresistibly Irreverent

series of the mid-1980s. Lucero’s works synthesize elements of Native American, pre-Columbian,

Iconoclast.” Ceramics: Art and

African, and European cultures. Lucero is a three-time recipient of the National Endowment for the

Perception no. 22 (1995): 23–28.

Arts Fellowship (1979, 1981, 1984) and was awarded a Marie Jones Fellowship, (1983) and a Creative
Artists Public Service Program Fellowship (1980). Additionally, he received the Young American
Award from the Museum of Contemporary Craft Council (1978) and scholarship from the Ford
Foundation (1977–1978). Lucero’s work is in numerous public and private collections including the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Mint Museum, 6