What makes the ordinary extraordinary?
The question is at the center of Roberto Lugo’s “Orange and Black” exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum’s Art@Bainbridge gallery. Last week, I attended Lugo’s artist and curator conversation at Bainbridge.
The exhibition centers pottery’s inherent capacity for storytelling and bridging connections between the past and present. Since its installation on Feb. 15, educators, elementary school students, and college students have been inspired by the collection’s ability to blend traditional Greek pottery with modern storytelling, using Lugo’s work as examples for their classes.
Throughout the conversation, Lugo spoke about his resonance with the colors orange and black. They didn’t represent the Princeton Tigers, though. Growing up in a North Philadelphia neighborhood, where many friends and family members were impacted by incarceration, they recalled prison uniforms. And something else: ancient Greek pottery.
For Lugo, this blend of passion for social injustice and interest in the traditions of ancient Greek ceramics offers a glimpse into his childhood, ancestors, and worldview.
This artistic transparency was most evident in “What Had Happened Was: The Path.” In this work of storytelling, abolitionist Harriet Tubman is pictured leading a group of enslaved people around the entire vase, symbolizing the often circular struggle for freedom. Near one end, a man looks outwards at the viewer, compelling them to confront the work and its message. With this style, recalling the veneration of heroes past, Lugo honors previous and current generations that have fought for freedom.
Visually tracing the figures running across the vase, I felt a sense of hopelessness. While the vase’s spherical shape celebrates the perseverance of abolitionists, it also evokes the idea that resistance and the pursuit of freedom are a perpetual struggle. As one traces their eyes across the pottery, the forward movement takes on a certain stillness, forcing the observer to grapple with the complex and often uncertain nature of progress and change.
Lugo further highlights African American resilience in his piece, “What Had Happened Was: Ruby Bridges,” which depicts a young Ruby Bridges being escorted by her mother and U.S. marshals to her first day at a desegregated elementary school. Once again, taking advantage of the physical advantages of pottery, Lugo portrays a turbulent path across the vase, through protesters angrily opposing desegregation and holding degrading signs.
On the vase, out of many characters, Bridges stands out. Carolyn Laferrière, the moderator of the conversation with Lugo, explained, “the focus is primarily on Ruby’s body” and “what constitutes her own personhood and experience of the world as a person of color.”
Beyond simple historical reinvention, Lugo finds imaginative ways to weave his memories and values into his works. In “The Life and Times of Dragon Clemente,” Lugo transforms the association of graffiti art with vandalism, crime, and race into creative aspiration.
As he expressed in the conversation, “If you don’t like graffiti, then maybe offer more art classes in the area for people to have access to express themselves in a way that they’re doing through graffiti.” He then added, “If people are fed up with discussions on race and racism, then let’s create a more just world … if you don’t like it, you have to actually do something about it. You can’t just bitch about the fact that it exists, right?”
Lugo’s work remolds art into community healing and an instrument of social change. In the discussion, he remarked, “You want to stop violence, pick up some violins … See because those who draw good, we’re the last to draw blood, and those who throw pots, we’re the last to throw shots.”
Lugo’s work innovates modern ceramics by tapping into its ancient purpose as a receptacle for human history. Far beyond pieces of art, Lugo’s ceramics’ overarching themes of social justice and resonating depictions of everyday life record stories, simultaneously educating and confronting the observer.
After visiting Lugo’s “Orange and Black” exhibition, I’ve found myself paying more attention to the objects that interact with daily life, contemplating the essential role art plays in relationships, resistance, and resilience. Introduced to an entirely new form of creative expression, Lugo has also inspired me to think beyond the functionality of our cups, vases, chairs, and tables, looking to their motifs, shapes, and eccentricities.
As a ceramicist, Lugo stands out not only for his impressive craftsmanship and attention to detail but also for the meanings intertwined with every emblem and character painted and shaped onto his works.
If you attend the exhibition, pay close attention to his motifs, seeing each vase not as a product of the old or the new but instead as the human qualities, experiences, and values that bind us together. Lugo’s deft weaving of ancient Greek history with contemporary examples of oppression, resistance, and change demands both artistic reflection and a personal transformation from the viewer.
“Orange and Black” is currently on view for free at Art@Bainbridge on Nassau Street until July 6.
Irene Kim is a contributing writer for The Prospect and a member of the Class of 2028. She can be reached at ik7641[at]princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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