Janice Tchalenko

b. 1942, Rugby
d. 2018

Brief biography

Janice Tchalenko was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, in 1942. After learning how to throw in pottery classes at Putney School of Art, working as a potter’s assistant and teaching pottery in a mental health hospital, Tchalenko completed a vocational pottery course at Harrow College of Art, London, (1969-1971), studying under Victor Margie and Michael Casson. Taking inspiration from Michael Cardew’s work and medieval English pottery, Tchalenko set up her own London studio in 1971, a process that was supported in 1972 by the Crafts Advisory Committee (Crafts Council) through a ‘Grant to New Craftsmen’ award. She has exhibited nationally and internationally at art fairs including the Los Angeles Decorative Art Fair (2003), as well as having her work presented in significant exhibitions such as the British Council’s ‘Contemporary British Crafts’, Kyoto, Japan (1988). Her work features in national and international collections that include the Helsinki Museum of Decorative Art, Finland, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA. Janice Tchalenko died in 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/aug/16/janice-tchalenko-obituary

Education & training

Vocational pottery course, Harrow College of Art, 1969-1971
Pottery, Putney School of Art