The Office of the Curator received a 2019 Grant Award from The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation to invite Roberto Lugo to curate an exhibition drawn from the Penn Art Collection.

Working virtually on the project during the pandemic, Lugo’s installation God Complex: Different Philadelphia will open at the Arthur Ross Gallery on September 11, 2021.

Roberto Lugo is a Philadelphia-based artist, ceramicist, social activist, poet, and educator. Lugo utilizes classical pottery forms in conjunction with portraiture and surface design reminiscent of his North Philadelphia upbringing and Hip Hop culture to highlight themes of poverty, inequality, and racial injustice. Roberto Lugo’s works are multicultural mash-ups; traditional European and Asian ceramic techniques reimagined with a 21st-century street sensibility. Awarded a 2019 Pew Fellowship and the 2019 Rome Prize, Lugo’s work resides in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The High Museum of Art among others. The artist’s work is currently on view at the Currier Museum of Art in a solo exhibition titled Roberto Lugo: Te traigo mi le lo lai – I bring you my joy, as well as in New Grit (Art & Philly Now) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Support for God Complex: Different Philadelphia has been provided by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation