Pottery in Paint
Anthony Gchachu (Zuni)
Authentic Traditions Gallery presents new paintings by Zuni artist Anthony Gchachu.
Anthony Gchachu grew up in a family of Zuni potters. Naturally, pottery rubbed off on him, but he never became a potter.
Today, Gchachu, who lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico, paints pottery in dazzling compositions that resemble traditional still lifes, but with a subtle twist. He paints them up close and personal, cropping the pots ever so slightly to create a more dramatic presentation. Many still life artists work from arranged objects in their studio or from photographs they’ve taken of their subjects, but these Zuni pots are entirely unique creations that only exist in Gchachu’s paintings.
“My family was mainly potters, so I come from three generations of great potters. That style was always fascinating to me so it attached to me I guess,” Gchachu says. “My works are a mixture of still life with texture. They are modern, fresh and really very clean and new. Also contemporary.”
Gchachu started experimenting with acrylics when he was young, around the time he also started using a pencil to get ideas down on paper. It was in high school
that his artwork began to really flourish. “Acrylic was the foundation for me. Everything I painted drew me in closer to my subjects,” he adds. “These days I’m just trying to perfect my technique and the acrylics. Eventually I would like to start working in oils.”
The artist is now 30 years old and already producing an amazing body of work. He recently held a show, Replenish, that performed very well and prompted a sequel. Replenish II will open August 14 at Authentic Traditions Gallery in Santa Fe.
The new show will once again showcase his unique Zuni pottery paintings. While the pots themselves are the stars of each piece, with designs and symbols that come right from the artist’s family, they are sometimes upstaged by the negative space that occupies each canvas. In Blessings No. 2, for instance, a water jar and a wedding vase are tightly cropped in the painting, revealing a seductive series of curves and swoops that define the empty space between the two pots. This wonderful aspect of Gchachu’s paintings can also be seen in Rain No. 1 and Family No. 2, both of which use the shape of their pots to create abstract shapes that wrap around the main subjects.
As an added feature, Gchachu is also painting on the edges of his canvases, which gives each work an almost three-dimensional effect that is especially noticeable as viewers walk around the piece. “They wrap around the sides, and that really brings the whole composition together,” he says. “It’s a difficult part of the paintings, but the result is amazing.”