Michael Gustavson "Tower 11" Glazed Ceramic, Slim Abstract Tower Sculpture in Yellow and Navy, Carmel California Art, Original 6 X 21.5 Inches, 2025

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This slim glazed ceramic tower sculpture by California artist Michael Gustavson, a very narrow column, carries a stack of small … Read more This slim glazed ceramic tower sculpture by California artist Michael Gustavson, a very narrow column, carries a stack of small geometric events: a navy cap with a green circle and a crimson disc, a pale yellow band, black and white stripes, and an orange half-moon near the foot. One side is left deliberately rough, a torn, lilac-speckled edge that breaks the otherwise crisp planes. The olive-gray base is low and angular, so the whole piece seems to stand on a small piece of ground. Gustavson paints with glaze across slabs and corners, and here the broken edge becomes part of the picture. The slim section makes the colors feel concentrated, like a tall painting reduced to a single strip.

At only six inches across, it fits on a shelf, a windowsill, a narrow console or a desk. Its yellow and black stripes pair well with graphic prints, dark frames and walnut, while the olive base sits easily with plants and natural stone. Use it as a vertical accent on a bookcase, or set several of different heights nearby to build a small vignette.

Glazed ceramic, 6 x 21.5 x 6 in (15.2 x 54.6 x 15.2 cm).

Gustavson approaches clay as a painter-sculptor, using glaze as his paint. Surfaces are built from layers of glaze, texture and color, with crackle, controlled drips and thin drawn lines, then fired to a rich, glossy finish. His firing approach grew out of raku during more than four decades of practice. His vessels are wheel-thrown and stretched by hand, and the same painterly method extends to towers, benches and tall columns.

Michael Gustavson is a ceramic artist based in Murphys, California, who has worked in clay for more than four decades. He earned his MFA from San Jose State University in 1980 and describes himself as a painter-sculptor, treating each form as a three-dimensional canvas and glaze as his paint. His work is held in private and public collections worldwide, including IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Seagate, Cranbrook Museum and Eastman Kodak.

Building on the traditional Japanese process of raku, he developed his own firing approach, leaving large pieces in the kiln and introducing pine needles at lower temperatures to create reduction. The method allows larger scale and unusually vivid color. His wheel-thrown, hand-stretched vessels suggest the figure in motion, his wall reliefs use fragmented slabs and negative space, and recent outdoor sculptures and benches carry his surfaces into tectonic forms, with nods to Miró, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Pollock. See less