Free Play

Superhouse is thrilled to present Sean Gerstley Free Play, the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. With Free Play, the artist explores a new sense of unencumbered self-expression, drawing on the idea of play as both a spiritual and creative journey. The exhibition runs from April 17 to May 31, 2025, at Superhouse, 120 Walker Street, 6R, New York, NY.

In Free Play, internationally exhibited ceramic artist Sean Gerstley continues his exploration at the intersection between sculpture and utilitarian objects. The work calls forth early 20th-century avant-garde movements like Orphism, Fauvism, and Automatism, through his embrace of improvisation and spontaneity as a guiding force for his creative process. Much like the Orphic painters celebrated by French art critic Guillaume Apollinaire, Gerstley’s work conjures a romantic idea of self-generated visions and pure play — unhinged from familiar structures. In Les Peintres Cubistes (1913), Apollinaire described Orphism as "the art of painting new totalities with elements the artist does not take from the visual world but creates entirely by himself." Gerstley channels this ethos into his ceramics, offering an emotionally resonant body of work that exudes meditative presence and aesthetic harmony.

Central to Free Play is Gerstley's use of the vessel, a timeless form that links humanity to clay through millennia of cultural traditions. Pottery has long been central to domestic life, from early functional containers to objects of ritualistic significance. Gerstley enhances his vessels, transforming them into evocative works of art that explore the expressive potential of clay. His sculptures become conduits for self-reflection that absorb the emotional weight of personal relationships and global events. Using minimal tools — his hands, wire, and sharpened sticks — Gerstley shapes swirling forms, intricate textures, and hidden details, bringing a sense of movement into each piece.

Color plays a pivotal role in Gerstley's artistic process, drawing directly from his emotional landscape to guide his palette. Much like the early 20th-century Fauves, Gerstley’s painterly application of color embraces vibrant industrial glazes, sometimes blending them into experimental hues to produce dynamic, emotionally-charged compositions. His colors interact in captivating ways — some pieces feature bold, geometric color blocks defined by hard lines, while others feature more fluid transitions, where glazes bleed into one another, creating organic, unexpected patterns. Punctuating certain pieces with gleaming silver and gold lusters, Gerstley brings into the work a handling of light.

In Free Play, Gerstley's practice reveals an expressive and almost automatic process that combines sophisticated color theory, an intuitive engagement with materiality, and a deep respect for ceramic history. The result is a body of work that fuses contemporary relevance with historical resonance. This is a significant time for Gerstley, having spent years developing a ceramic furniture practice. Following the close of Free Play, the artist will unveil a new collection at the Philadelphia International Airport, part of Art in the Airport, an ongoing public art program for the past 25 years and an important milestone in the artist’s career.

About Sean Gerstley
Sean Gerstley, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, uses clay as his primary medium to explore the intersection of sculpture and interior spaces. Working from his studio in Philadelphia, Gersley creates a dynamic ceramic world of slab and coil-built forms, each with pinched surfaces and distinctive glazes, often bursting with vibrant color.

In 2020, Gerstley debuted his first series of earthenware furniture with Superhouse in New York, NY, marking a significant milestone in his evolving practice. His work has since been showcased in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally, including in Paris, Milan, London, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia. Notable venues include Commonweal Gallery (Philadelphia), Emma Scully Gallery (New York), Air Mattress Gallery (New York), and 99cent Plus Gallery (Brooklyn).

Gerstley’s work is represented in several prominent private collections and has received widespread acclaim in major publications, including Architectural Digest, Artforum, Curbed, Design Milk, Elle Decor Italia, Interior Design, Metropolis, Sight Unseen, and Surface.

In 2025, curator Helen Cahng selected Gersley to represent Philadelphia in a solo exhibition at the Philadelphia International Airport, set to open in July 2025. See more.