Mike J. Gesiakowski

Originally from Chicago, IL, Mike received his MFA in Ceramics from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a BFA in Design from Northern Illinois University. He has apprenticed for Simon Levin, was an Emerging Artist for Ceramics Monthly, and a Wingate Scholar as a short-term resident at The Archie Bray Foundation. Mike’s work has been featured in exhibitions across the country. He lives and teaches in St. Louis, MO where he is the ceramics instructor and the Fine Arts department chair at John Burroughs School.

Architectural form, structural composition, and spatial balance provide a foundation for my pottery practice. These vessels are informed by the rhythms of built environments: repeated lines, modular systems, and surfaces shaped by use. Through ceramics, a medium rooted in both utility and permanence, I explore how design and craftsmanship intersect to create forms that feel deliberate and intentional.

By translating architectural language into ceramic vessels, the work establishes a dialogue between past and present, presence and absence, and the tangible and abstract. References to constructed space appear through edges, planes, and voids, while the vessel format grounds the work in utility. Pots become spaces meant to be held, used, and lived with, carrying traces of process and memory while bridging historical forms and contemporary making.