Michelle Gregor’s colorful, abstract figures are revelations of beauty that manifest in myriad ways, ranging in size from a few inches tall to architectural-scale bronzes. What unifies these sculptures is their sense of calm, mass and balance, simultaneously suggesting motion and repose. 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.After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from UC Santa Cruz, Gregor gravitated to an MFA program at SF State where she worked with her mentor, Stephen DeStaebler. Here she was deeply impacted by the work of DeStaebler and other artists of the Bay Area figurative movement like Manuel Neri, David Park, and Richard Diebenkorn.
During her time at SF State, Gregor worked a day job as a production potter in the East Bay. She harnessed her ability to throw large cylindrical forms as a means to “get large masses into space quickly,” and then would apply human or animalfigures to these non-functional pots. Eventually by the end of her graduate school period, she had left the vessel behind as an elemtn of her sculptural work,choosing to fcus exclusively on the body.
The wheel remained an essential part of her sculptural process since Gregor’s large-scale works were often built from wheel-thrown pieces. The multitude of cylindrical forms in her Hands series reflect their origin on the potter’s wheel. This incorporation of wheel-thrown pieces creates a dynamic and poetic association between vessels and the human form.
Michelle Gregor, Scout, ceramic, 36″ x 16″ x 18″
Michelle Gregor in studio.
Michelle Gregor, Euphrates, ceramic, 2016, 33″ x 27″ x 24″
The vivid, multi-hued surfaces of these pieces are achieved entirely with glazes and usually require multiple firings. Still, there is no suggestion of laboriousness in the end result.” -Maria Porges, Art’s Avatars and Angels, 2013
Michelle Gregor, Avalon, 22″ x 25″ x 18″, ceramic
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Michelle Gregor, Deep Water, 2009, 13″ x 6″ x 9″, ceramic
Michelle Gregor, Adriatic, 28″ x 13″ x 25″, ceramic
Michelle Gregor in studio
Michelle Gregor’s list of early influences is seemingly endless: Indian, Cambodian and Balinese figurative sculptures largely inform her early work. Three months traveling in Indonesia deeply underscored Gregor’s sense of connection to spiritual art. Gregor also taps into the interconnectedness of all art forms, describing dance as “moving sculpture”. She says seeing the work of others is like a “free coupon for new interest… There is no reason to ever lack inspiration in this world.”
Gregor has always been a proponent of creating drawings in addition to her sculpted pieces. Her wonderful works on paper provide a guide for the sculptures they precede. They are a playground which give the artist a platform to more easily and readily explore color palettes before they reach clay. By refusing to ignore two-dimensional mediums, Gregor yet again proves herself to be a well-rounded artist.
2011-2015
It is evident in Gregor’s nuanced work, she has spent time with important work from periods and cultures that historically support sculpture, especially the figure. On a three month sabbatical from San Jose City College, Gregor travelled throughout Europe, closely studying the classical tradition at European museums from Naples, Italy to the Louvre. Well-versed in art history, Gregor is also inspired by the urban diversity of the San Francisco bay area and previous travel to Bali and southeast Asia.
This time abroad inspired her work for the Transcendent exhibition in partner with Don Reitz and her former mentor, David Kuraoka. Gregor’s foray into life-size work grasped the attention of audiences for this show. The work’s large scale accentuates their sense of motion and power. Billowing drapery flows to the ground, creating Gregor’s signature silhouette. The figures are subtly expressive in their gestures and have a raw, unfinished quality. The rawness and missing limbs seem to suggest ancient artifacts or Greek statues where the paint has worn and limbs have fallen off. The intriguing sculptures reward close examination; subtle layers of color and uneven surfaces reveal a nuanced figure.
The freestanding figures sit perched on their bases. Facial features are often blurred or completely indecipherable; sculpting them is often left for last touches, although the process can take many work sessions. The faces of her earlier work suggested self-portraits, but the details have since been reduced and draw upon a broader expanse of influences and sources. while details of clothing and decoration are added in paint or scratched in with sculpting tools. The figures are timeless and simultaneously remind the viewer of both Greek antiquities and modern magazine photographs. In a 2001 interview, Susannah Israel posed the timeless question, “Why make art?” Gregor responded, “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, Mykonos Figure Ground, mixed media, 2018
Michelle Gregor, Girl on Plinth, ceramic