Gorky Gonzalez was born in Morelia, Mexico, in 1939. He was a student of the arts, and in the early 1960s his primary interest became the resurrection of traditional Colonial Majolica, a double-glaze pottery technique made popular in Italy and favored during Spanish colonialism. Gorky considered traditional Majolica a lost craft representing a critical cultural and historical component of the region. So in 1965, with his wife Toshiko, Gorky founded his own ceramic workshop dedicated strictly to traditional Majolica. Almost 50 years later, Gorky's dedication to quality and authenticity remain the cornerstones of Gorky Gonzalez Traditional Pottery. Today, Gorky Pottery is recognized as one of the most influential ceramic studios in Mexico, and in 1992 Gorky earned Mexico's National Award of Science and Arts in the field of Popular Art and Traditions.