Can 18th-century porcelain vessels bridge the gap between historical figures and modern hip-hop culture?
In short: Artist Roberto Lugo reimagines traditional European porcelain through the lens of contemporary hip-hop. Featured in The Met's Afrofuturist period room, his work blends graffiti and kente patterns to elevate portraits of heroes often excluded from fine art, turning domestic objects into sites of cultural and temporal reflection.
Roberto Lugo’s artistic practice involves taking the refined forms of 18th-century European porcelain and subverting them with modern iconography. By incorporating elements like graffiti and kente prestige cloth, he challenges the exclusivity of traditional luxury wares. His work serves as a vessel for representation, placing figures who are historically absent from such mediums into the spotlight.
In his piece 'Digable Underground,' located within the 'Before Yesterday We Could Fly' exhibition, Lugo positions the abolitionist Harriet Tubman alongside the contemporary singer-songwriter Erykah Badu. This arrangement highlights the kitchen as a space where past, present, and future converge, suggesting that domestic environments can act as powerful sites for exploring Afrofuturist possibilities.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: AFPR—Meet The Artists: Roberto Lugo
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