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Lucy Lacoste Gallery is showing Chris Gustin: Wild Things (through October 12, 2025), a suite of new abstract ceramic sculptures from the artist’s Cloud and Spirit series. These works are at once monumental and intimate: closed forms shaped by melting wood ash in his firings into surfaces that evoke bodies, landscapes, clouds, and even galaxies. Long recognized as a force in abstract ceramics, Gustin invites viewers to look inward, drawing on memory and imagination through clay.
Few match Gustin's spirituality and technical skill in handling large-scale forms. Slowly, year by year, he has evolved a technique and achieved a level of skill that is unmatched. His monumental forms are sensuous, robust and infused with life as he seems to breathe air into the spaces holding the walls of his "forms" and then, magically, covers these ‘forms’ with glazes that are equally life-affirming. He is a master of the glazed surface, with nuances of color and texture that visually excite. His work takes the viewer into a world of imagination and awareness of color and form that has seldom been seen with such a high level of integration.
Gustin was born into a family ceramic business, and ceramic art has always been a big part of his life. He began college-level teaching in the 70s and has nurtured countless students in a variety of higher-education settings. Later, he moved into a full-time studio environment to perfect his art.
Gustin's skill set is unequalled, his manner as a mentor to many is quiet, and his vision vast. The sharing of his Anagama kiln and the weeklong firings are legendary, with artists coming to be part of the experience. Moreover, his dedication to nurturing artists became the backdrop for his co-founding of the Watershed residency- an invaluable retreat for artists who need to find the time and space to work in clay.
His latest show title focuses on Spirits and Clouds, which he identifies as “Wild Things.” What might at first seem intangible or fleeting is reframed as vital, unpredictable, and alive. To extend wildness into the immaterial and atmospheric is to question the limits we place on what counts as nature—suggesting that the unseen, like the visible, possesses its own agency and force. Naming clouds and spirits as wild is both playful and reverent. It calls to mind myth-making traditions that animate the natural world while also echoing childhood imaginings, where the wild is everywhere, unbounded. It also recalls the book Where the Wild Things Are—a childlike, playful reimagining of what’s feared or untamed, hinting at imagination as a form of liberation. Spirits and clouds can also serve as metaphors for the psyche: fleeting moods, shifting thoughts, or hidden forces within the self.
Gustin works within the traditions of the Surrealists and Abstract Expressionists, who used amorphous forms to explore meaning, often drawing from psychology, biology, and the spiritual world. At its core, Gustin’s personal expression creates a pathway for the viewer to encounter similar experiences, emotions, memories, and perspectives, allowing each person to bring their own interpretations, feelings, and histories into his forms. In this exchange, Wild Things becomes a conversation that transforms private truths into a communal experience.
He creates visual worlds that don’t just mirror reality but expand it—spaces that invite us to reimagine the familiar. Wild Things sparks curiosity, reshapes perception, and encourages us to see connections between our shared experiences. These imagined worlds are not escapism but rather a way of deepening awareness, nudging us to question and rediscover the significance of what surrounds us daily.
IN THE STUDIO WITH Chris Gustin
Step inside the studio of Chris Gustin, where clay becomes a vessel for memory, imagination, and wonder. In this intimate video, the celebrated ceramic artist reflects on his new series of closed forms—works at once monumental and tender—now on view in Wild Things at Lucy Lacoste Gallery through October 12, 2025.
Visit Lucy Lacoste Gallery’s websiteto learn more about the exhibition, and explore Chris Gustin’s work on his own site.
