Michael Gustavson "Gemstones" Glazed Ceramic, Large Abstract Two-Part Bench Sculpture in Red, Carmel California Art, Original 50 X 24 Inches, 2022

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Two plump, rounded blocks sit side by side, each capped with a thick, glossy red top that rolls over like … Read more Two plump, rounded blocks sit side by side, each capped with a thick, glossy red top that rolls over like a cushion. A black band follows beneath it, and below that a pale sage field is filled with pebble-like ovals in black, teal, amber, gold and white, as if gems were set into a stream bed. A second ribbon of red runs near the base. The glaze is thick, jeweled and rich, and the pebbles seem almost to stand out from the surface. Gustavson says his work is made to be touched as well as seen, and these soft shapes invite it. Seen from the front, the pair reads as one continuous painted band.

Placed apart or together, these two forms work as low seats, side tables or sculptural accents in an entry, a living room, a garden room or a sunny terrace. The red and black pair well with white walls, gray stone and dark wood, and the sage tones relate to plants and natural textures. A pair beside a sofa or fireplace gives a room a quiet, tactile center.

Glazed ceramic, 50 x 24 x 47 in (127.0 x 61.0 x 119.4 cm), two-part.

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