"Delightful Day" by Michael Gustavson, Raku Ceramic Triptych Wall Sculpture, Vivid Teal Orange and Navy Glaze, Contemporary California Art

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Three irregularly shaped slabs carrying a vivid and joyful palette. The upper slab moves through white, teal, red, and gold … Read more Three irregularly shaped slabs carrying a vivid and joyful palette. The upper slab moves through white, teal, red, and gold in overlapping forms with Cubist confidence. The lower left is warmer and more circular, orange and teal moving through it with genuine energy. The right slab is the most graphic, bold orange, deep navy, and crackled yellow in clean decisive sections. Gustavson's raku process fires each slab separately, the reduction atmosphere resolving the glazes differently across each one. This triptych brings extraordinary colour and life to a large wall, working beautifully in a living room, dining room, open-plan kitchen, or any architectural space that can carry bold, joyful art at scale.

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