David Cressy For Architectural Pottery Pro/Artisan Leaf Pattern Pot Rust Glaze

David Cressey, a multi-disciplinary artist who had a six-decade career, created pottery and ceramics that revolutionized indoor/outdoor planters with their architectural style. Implementing artistic functionality into his pieces, Cressey designed in modern and mid-century modern styles. He created many planters, vases and table lamps, which remain highly desirable to collectors.

Cressey was the first artist in residence at Architectural Pottery in Los Angeles in 1961, helping to transform its urban and residential work. This was highly influential in the architecture and design worlds as the company mass-produced and sold sculptural, functional pieces.

Cressey also opened a design studio in Venice Beach, California, collaborating with Group Artec and Earthgender Ceramics. When Architectural Pottery closed in the mid-1980s due to a fire, Cressey continued to produce art, this time in the medium of mixed media on wood.

Cressey artwork evokes a similar physical and sensory experience as his vessels, lanterns and folk art ceramics. Evocatively Californian, his paintings evolved from his clay-based practice with a masterful use of color, saturation and texture. His fine art training included studying at the University of Southern California under Vivika Heino and at the University of California, Los Angeles, with Laura Andreson. 

In 2006, he received the California Design Award. Museums that have exhibited his work include the Pasadena Art Museum in 1967, the Everson Museum of Art in 1961, the Oakland Museum of California in 1961 and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2011.

On 1stDibs, find a rare collection of David Cressey building and garden elements, decorative objects, lighting and more.

Ten10 is a Los Angeles based company founded in 1997. After years of providing custom residential and commercial design solutions to clients, we began producing a line of furniture created to provide quality, timeless products with a modernist sensibility. Our design aesthetic was further developed through work with many of the artists, architects and designers who were part of the original mid-century modernist movement in Southern California. Our products are manufactured exclusively in Los Angeles. Ten10 also represents California environmental ceramist Stan Bitters. Since 2003 we have completed 50+ commissions together, including murals at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, Westfield Century City Mall, and most recently, the Ace Hotel in Brooklyn, NY.