Arthur González
sculptor, painter, symbolist
4-time recipient
NEA fellowship
1st & 2nd Place awards
Virginia A. Groot Foundation
Visual Arts award
Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation
Peter Voulkos visiting artist fellowship
Archie Bray Foundation
California Arts Council fellowship
Gold Discovery award
Art of California Magazine
4-time recipient NEA fellowship 1st & 2nd Place awards Virginia A. Groot Foundation Visual Arts award Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Peter Voulkos visiting artist fellowship Archie Bray Foundation California Arts Council fellowship Gold Discovery award Art of California Magazine
“Arthur González is one of the most established California sculptors today. He is known for his compositions that juxtapose incongruent and eccentric figurative elements that evoke conflicting responses.”
—Patti Warashina, ceramic artist and professor emerita, University of Washington
Exhibitions
30 Ceramic Sculptors
rooted in diverse cultures, experiences and education from around the world
39th annual exhibition in concurrence
California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts (CCACA)
John Natsoulas Center for the Arts
Davis, CA
April 1 – May 16, 2026
CCA Faculty Exhibition: Between Silver and Gold
Celebrating 25+ Years of Creative Teaching
CCA Campus Gallery
1480 17th Street
San Francisco, CA, 94107
Sept. 3 – Oct. 24, 2025
Opening reception
Sept. 3, 2025 6-8pm
An alchemical mix of often-flawed characters made of ceramic combined with the blending of the languages of other materials and objects creates the desired result of a potency that transcends the inert material into a physical embodiment of the human condition.
Workshops & Lectures
Arthur González Lecture at CCACA 2026
the largest sculptural ceramics conference in the world
Conference: April 24 - 25, 2026
Lecture: April 25, 2026 2-3pm
California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts (CCACA) 2026 hosted by
John Natsoulas Gallery
521 First Street
Davis, CA 95616
The Unusual Suspects: The Inside Out Technique
Concentrating on life-size portrait busts, we will learn to sculpt facial and upper body expressions, depict advanced emotions, and create a narrative.
June 22 - 26, 2026
University of Reno at Lake Tahoe
Tahoe Summer Arts Workshops
Holman Arts & Media Center
1008 Tahoe Blvd
Incline Village, NV 89451
“The history of myth is the history of understanding reality through story and representations. Myth is a tool for the clarification of life, as is a telescope for the skies.”
—Arthur González
You may have heard
-
![]()
MIND+MATTER: Five Bay Area Sculptors
Over 80 works by Robert Brady, Arthur González, Beverly Mayeri, Nancy Selvin, and Richard Shaw. Each investigates clay’s materiality while evoking profound expressions of life experiences, contemporary issues, psychological explorations, and reflections of popular culture.
-
![]()
Ceramics Now features González as cover story
González is one of the most assiduous ceramic artists in the world, with hundreds of exhibitions over more than thirty years. He expresses so many emotions that threaten to erupt into reality; you can feel them just by looking at his works. Why did he choose this career path? What is the role of figurative in his works?
-
![]()
Omens and Observations: Harry Clewans and Arthur González
Arthur González is a ceramic sculptor with training as a painter and therein lies the adventure, “What happens when a painter exists in sculptural ideas?” He uses clay and other materials to construct his sculptures and takes his inspiration from the figure, found objects, books and even the shape of the inner ear, “traversing the object and the image together.”
“He is a very good storyteller.”
—Viola Frey, artist and retired professor
200-page retrospective of ceramic sculptures and paintings
Broken Magic
the work of Arthur González
Get in touch
Accepting inquiries regarding representation, exhibitions, commissions, curatorial projects, workshops and studio visits.