Philadelphia-based artist and designer Sean Gerstley builds forms that fuse the practical with the poetic. His work lives at the intersection of sculpture and design, and reimagines domestic objects like furniture, lighting, and tableware through an improvisational lens.

Gerstley’s primary medium is clay, an ancient material that is both pliable and enduring. In its wet stage, it records every pinch and prod, leaving behind the artist’s literal fingerprints. After firing, it becomes a permanent relic of those actions, rendered even more immutable by icy glazes bursting with color. His ceramic furniture nods to traditional conventions but twists them literally and conceptually into forms that are uncanny and unexpected.

Surfaces become places of discovery. Grooves, swirls, pinches, and puzzle-piece compositions capture the moment of making, and saturated flowing glazes create energetic juxtapositions. Gerstley describes his process as “the tension between utility and expression. I want to create objects that convey the joy I get from making them. Clay…reflects a deeply human context and invites a kind of play that feels both primal and personal. I love the physicality of the process, moving my body with the material to channel the inner child at play, learning by doing. I want the surprise moment of wonderment-- “How did that happen!?”. By fostering a practice that allows a sense of play, he invites the viewer to join him as he surrenders to curiosity and delight.

visit Sean Gerstley — Superhouse