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Michael Gustavson

Just South of the Moon Triptych
Regular price $7,600
Regular price Sale price $7,600
Sale Sold

Michael Gustavson

Regular price $7,600
Regular price Sale price $7,600
Sale Sold
Glazed ceramic
66"×52"×1.5"
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Glazed ceramic

66"×52"×1.5"

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About

The Piece

Three organic slab forms in a quiet palette. Soft greens, warm creams, greys, and earthy reds are drawn by the reduction firing into a subtle richness within a restrained colour range. The mood is calm rather than bold, and the surfaces reward a slower kind of looking, one that Gustavson's layered glazing approach consistently makes worthwhile.

Circular forms appear across each piece, a recurring detail in his work that ties the grouping together without making it feel repetitive. The space between the slabs is carefully considered, the gaps as much a part of the composition as the ceramic itself. This is something Gustavson has developed deliberately across his wall relief work, treating negative space as an active compositional force.

A settled, thoughtful work. Well suited to a space that values quiet.

Browse all works by Michael Gustavson

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About

The Artist

The Artist
About

The Artist

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 Gustavson’s practice is a firing approach he has developed and refined over decades, evolving from but ultimately departing from traditional raku. Rather than removing works from the kiln, he introduces pine needles at lower temperatures to create the reduction atmosphere while the pieces remain inside. This highly individual, studio-developed method allows him to work at significant scale and achieve exceptional chromatic depth and painterly nuance in glazed ceramic. Few ceramic artists pursue color with this level of painterly ambition.

Over a four-decade career, Gustavson has pushed the expressive potential of clay, developing a controlled yet highly responsive surface language. Describing himself as a painter-sculptor, he treats each form as a three-dimensional canvas built through layered glazes, textures, and color interactions. His vessels often suggest the human figure in motion, while his wall reliefs activate negative space as an integral compositional force. Large-scale outdoor sculptures and benches extend this painterly vision into powerful tectonic forms.

Inspired by Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and Jackson Pollock, Gustavson’s surfaces often feature controlled dripping and expressive movement, translating the energy of abstract painting into fired clay.

Gustavson earned his MFA from San José State University in 1980. His work is held in major public and private collections worldwide, including IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Seagate, Cranbrook Museum, and Eastman Kodak.

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Behind the Art

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{

Michael Gustavson

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American

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{

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{

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Rebecca Koury is a contemporary painter and collage artist whose layered, meditative abstractions explore nature, movement, and transformation through luminous, textured surfaces informed by both painting and sculptural sensibility...


{

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Behind the Art

Meet Our Artist

Arrow VIEW ALL
{

Rita Matos

Abstract Painter
Portuguese

Rita Matos (b. 1988) is a Portuguese-born, London-based mixed media artist whose intuitive, layered abstractions explore memory, presence, and transformation through expressive mark-making and evolving surface compositions....

{

Javiera da Fonseca Ilić

Landscape, Abstract, Figurative
Chilean

Javiera da Fonseca Ilić (b. 1982, Santiago de Chile) is a Chilean-born, Mexico-based abstract artist whose work explores the interplay of memory, dreams, and energy through material experimentation and investigations of the connection between inner and natural worlds...

{

Kate Vorona

Abstract Figurative Painter
Moldovan

Kate Vorona (Moldovan, b. 1993) is a contemporary abstract-figurative painter whose expressive, color-driven works explore the emotional inner worlds of her figures through movement, atmosphere, and dynamic spatial tension....

{

Cedric VU

Textile Artist
French-Vietnamese

Cedric Vu (b. 1996) is a French-Vietnamese contemporary visual artist born and raised in San Jose, California. From 2014 to 2023, he lived in Los Angeles, where he studied filmmaking, worked as a dancer, and held a range of production roles in film and...

{

Christiane Corcelle

Mixed Media Artist
French-American

Christiane Corcelle is a French-American mixed media artist based in Massachusetts. Her intuitive, layered practice spans painting, printmaking, collage, and de-collage, building richly textured surfaces that invite close exploration. Guided by curiosity and...

{

Luz Marina Ruiz

Painting & Mixed Media
Colombian

Luz Marina Ruiz is an CA-based multidisciplinary artist whose work, inspired by nature and dreams, uses layered printmaking techniques to create luminous, tactile imagery often centered on water and boats as metaphors for life’s journeys...

{

Rinat Goren

Encaustic Artist
Israeli-American

Born and raised in Israel and now based in Silicon Valley, California, Rinat Goren creates abstract and figurative paintings that reflect her deep admiration for individuals who think critically and act with intention. Her work is inspired by the uniquely human...

{

Meifen Zhong

Figurative Painter
Chinese

Meifen Zhong (b. 1986, China) is a Shanghai-based painter whose refined portraits, rendered with luminous, porcelain-like surfaces and meticulous brushwork, explore quiet introspection and emotional depth...

{

Michael Gustavson

Ceramic Sculptor
American

Michael Gustavson is a California-based ceramic artist who reimagines traditional raku through a highly personal firing process, creating large-scale, painterly sculptures distinguished by luminous color, expressive surfaces, and a synthesis of abstract painting and sculptural form...

{

Miriam Sweeney

Abstract Landscape Painter
American

Miriam Sweeney is a San Francisco–based artist who transforms aerial city maps into textured, layered abstractions that capture the rhythm, density, and evolving structure of urban life...

{

Marc Zimmerman

Sculptor & Painter
American

Marc Zimmerman is an American painter and ceramic sculptor based in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, recognized for exuberant, color-driven works that fuse tropical imagery, figurative elements, and stylized botanical forms. Across both canvas and clay...

{

Rebecca Koury

Mixed Media Abstract
American

Rebecca Koury is a contemporary painter and collage artist whose layered, meditative abstractions explore nature, movement, and transformation through luminous, textured surfaces informed by both painting and sculptural sensibility...

{

Flavia Cuddemi

Figurative, Landscape Watercolorist
Italian

Flavia Cuddemi is a Sicilian-born, Rome-based painter and illustrator whose delicate watercolor works explore intimacy, solitude, and belonging through tender human gestures and expansive, atmospheric landscapes....

{

Terese Garcia

Mixed Media Artist
American

Terese Garcia is a Monterey, CA–based, non-representational artist whose experimental, process-driven practice is shaped by nature, meditation, and lived experience, alongside her work as a published poet and active contributor to the California arts community...