Celia Vasquez Yui both preserves and expands her cultural heritage: her animal figures are built and decorated using the techniques handed down through generations of women. She was trained by her mother, an eminent ceramicist and now works alongside her own daughter, Diana Ruiz Vasquez. Her technique derives from the ancient tradition of the Moche society, which flourished in Peru between the first and the eighth centuries AD, producing a great variety of exquisitely skilled and decorated vessels. Balancing a cultural imperative for inventiveness with the constraints of traditional style, Vasquez Yui has distinguished her practice through astonishing creative innovations, exploring and expanding the zoomorphic features of her style.