"Call the Sea" by Michael Gustavson, Large Raku Ceramic Column Sculpture for Garden or Indoors, Contemporary California Art, Vibrant Colors

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Bold geometric forms move up this tall column in stages, arcs, circles, and fragmented planes shifting from warm reds and … Read more Bold geometric forms move up this tall column in stages, arcs, circles, and fragmented planes shifting from warm reds and oranges at the base into cooler blues and whites above. Gustavson's signature dripped passages move through the composition with a loose, painterly freedom, controlled and deliberate rather than accidental. At 81 inches tall this is a piece that commands space. It works powerfully as a standalone sculpture in a large living room, a double-height entry, an outdoor garden or courtyard, a hotel lobby, or a corporate art collection where monumental scale and exceptional craftsmanship are the brief.

Michael Gustavson is a California-based ceramic artist who builds upon the traditional Japanese process of raku, reimagining it through a distinctly contemporary and highly personal methodology. His work bridges free-form organic sculpture and painterly abstraction, distinguished by unusually vivid, luminous color rarely achieved in ceramic sculpture. Central to his practice is a firing approach developed and refined over decades, introducing pine needles at lower temperatures to create a reduction atmosphere while pieces remain inside the kiln. This highly individual studio-developed method allows him to work at significant scale and achieve exceptional chromatic depth and painterly nuance. Describing himself as a painter-sculptor, he treats each form as a three-dimensional canvas built through layered glazes, textures, and color interactions. Inspired by Miro, Picasso, Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Pollock, his surfaces often feature controlled dripping and expressive movement, translating the energy of abstract painting into fired clay. Gustavson earned his MFA from San Jose State University in 1980. His work is held in major public and private collections worldwide, including IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Seagate, Cranbrook Museum, Eastman Kodak, the Bel-Air Hotel, ANA Hotel Tokyo, and private collectors including Goldie Hawn and Dr. Linus Pauling. See less