Inculcated by waves of Saturday morning cartoons, characters portrayed in comic book literature, and videogame culture, Tina Lugo became instantly infatuated with the bright colors of the animated world. As she grew up, the social and sexual undertones of these cartoons unbridled themselves from the confines of her childhood memory. Tina began to realize that the sexual and often tongue-in- cheek humor she expressed had stemmed from what she had watched on early 90’s television and only fueled her passion to uncover the subversive and controversial qualities in the pop culture of yesteryear. The use of enamel and plexiglas in her work is to suggest that the smooth, hyper-gloss finishing of a world that allures us will always be beneath a transparent barrier we can touch but never enter-a replication of the voyeuristic qualities we all posses. Her style references and pays homage to her variety of modern influences which include: Takashi Murakami, Toshio Saeki, Hanna Barbera, Japanese animation, and Henry Darger.
Tina Lugo was born and raised in the Bronx where she still resides. She studied at the School of Visual Arts where she obtained her BFA and worked with fellow artist, Nicolas Touron.