Ceramics: All of our ceramics consist of wheel thrown and hand built forms. Recently we have begun making handmade tiles which we decorate in the same manner as the other ceramics. Victor builds tables using the tiles in various types of wood and a variety of shapes.
All the ceramics are decorated while wet with colored slips. They are glazed with wood-ash Shino and or wood ash glazes. The pieces are fired in a gas kiln to a temperature of approximately 2400 degrees Fahrenheit in a reduction atmosphere.
Victor does all the throwing, hand building, glazing and firing. He also decorates the ceramics with non-objective imagery using colored slips on the damp ceramics.
Toni decorates with imagery using colored slips on the damp ceramics and tiles. Both Victor and Toni make the tiles using a tile press.
Biographies:
Victor Gonchoroff – born in 1947 in Bad Axe, Michigan
Master of Fine Arts from Indiana State in Ceramics/Sculpture 1977
Toni Engel Gonchoroff – born in 1950 in New York, NY
Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Drawing/Painting 1978
We met in Chicago at a Co-op gallery and moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1980
In NY Victor worked for Holly Solomon Gallery and later as a carpenter for New York Store Fixture. He built sculptures while living in NY for seven years.
In NY Toni worked in public school as an Art History teacher in Junior High and did drawings and paintings while living there for seven years.
Our two children, Sasha(27) and Tim(23) were born in NY.
Victor wanted to fulfill his dream of being a full-time potter. In order to build a kiln and studio and not have to deal with a lot of city regulations and restrictions we decided to move to a rural area (Faber in Nelson County, Virginia) close to Charlottesville.
After a fairly long search we found the perfect spot and Victor built the house, studio and the gas kiln. The construction took a year-and-a-half.
For the last 18 years we have participated in art fairs mainly on the east coast and in the Midwest. We also do occasional gallery shows.
www.valleygreengallery.com: Nu Pottery
www.artsplosure.org/artsplosure2006/pages/art_market_ceramics.html
