Figurative Sculpture, celebrating beauty, strength and power.

Michelle Gregor is an American sculptor, painter, and arts educator. Gregor sculpts the abstracted human figure in ceramic. Continuing the tradition of artists such as Manuel Neri and Stephen DeStaebler, Gregor’s forms apply the free, intuitive impulses of Abstract Expressionism to figurative representation.

Perhaps best known as a colorist, her painterly, multi-layered and multi-fired approach to surface endows her sculptures with a sense of depth and the passage of time. Her sculptures in bronze and ceramic grace private residences, corporate offices, galleries, and outdoor spaces around the world. Michelle Gregor lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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“Art is a spiritual necessity. The creative spirit is the best a human being can reach for. It connects us to people in the present, the past and the future.”

— Michelle Gregor

Sculpture

Representing the diversity of ancient female figuration, Michelle Gregor creates sculptures in high fire ceramic and bronze. Balancing confident form and colorations that attain psychological depth, her work has been described as lyrical, graceful and spiritual.

“The duality of her clay handling and selective stains result in quietly powerful pieces, whose features are enlivened through posture and expressionist use of colour and clay. Though informed by ancient sculpture, Michelle Gregor’s ceramic sculptures attain a contemporary status while fostering an ethereal emphasis.”

— Nancy M Servis, Ceramics historian, author, and curator.
"Figuratively Speaking", Ceramics Art and Perception, No.96 2014, pages 8-11

Painting and Drawing

Drawing and painting are critical components to Gregor’s practice. She makes a distinction between drawing from life for accuracy and discipline versus free drawing for gesture and freedom, valuing both equally.

“Looking. And Drawing. I want to draw more and more.”

— Michelle Gregor

Sculpture

Representing figurative art across time and around the world, Gregor’s oeuvre spans hundreds of sculptures. The pieces range in dimension from a few inches tall to architectural-scale bronzes, but are unified in their sense of calm, mass and balance, simultaneously suggesting motion and repose. Her masterful, intuitive sense of color that unifies her productions in various media and endows all of her work with a painterly vigor reflects her Bay Area roots and also her deep understanding of Abstract Expressionism.

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“After twenty years of teaching and exhibiting in the Bay Area, Gregor has gained an admiring following for her art. Art dealer John Natsoulas considers Gregor the single most important second-generation figurative sculptor of the Bay Area Figurative Group and the obvious successor of Manuel Neri and Stephen De Staebler.”

— John Seed, arts writer, painter, curator, and retired professor.
"Michelle Gregor: Seeking Resonance", Forward. Michelle Gregor, 2018

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3rd Printing of Michelle Gregor book is now available

In 2013, John Natsoulas Press published the 200-page monograph Michelle Gregor, detailing my life and career. The biographical hardcover book is now in its 3rd printing.

For those of you who have purchased a copy, I hope the book has inspired and even amused you. Did you catch that Richard Deibenkorn is my favorite artist? How about that my alternative career path was to be a baker?

For those of you who wish to buy the book as a step in evaluating my work for your collection or exhibition, or simply to share with your family, friends and colleagues who ask about that “ceramic femme” in your home or office, head on over to John Natsoulas Press.

Remember to drop me a line with your comments after reading.

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