Michael Lucero
American, Born 1953 Born in Tracy, California, Michael Lucero discovered the possibilities of clay in the early 1970s while he was studying for a BA at Humboldt State University. Graduating in 1975 he went on to study for an MFA in ceramics at the University of Washington. He credits his career to his lecturers. “Howard Kottler and Patty Warashina. I was very lucky to have met them and had their encouragement, which directed me to be the artist I am today.” In 1978 he moved to New York City where he began showing his work in galleries. Childhood excursions to his maternal grandparents’ home in rural New Mexico had left him with a fascination for Native American culture and by now that fascination had grown into an appetite for art from indigenous groups around the globe, which he hybridized with found objects and references to pop culture. In the late 1980s he turned from polychrome clay to cast metal and began working with both mediums. Lucero describes his approach to art as a "reverence for high art, affection for folk art, nostalgia for nature, and curiosity about other cultures," an attitude that has remained steady even while his sculptures have changed from tall thin human-like figures to shorter conglomerate masses. “As for creative recharge, it usually comes from the process of working itself. I always discover when I search.” His work is represented in the collections of the American Craft Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.