Art Review: Elegance in clay and glass

Friday, December 13, 2002

By Leslie Hoffman

Lovers of glass and clay can find both form and function at two very different shows now running in Shadyside.

The Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery features a wide range of sophisticated glass sculptures that were exhibited at the widely admired Sculpture Objects and Functional Art show in Chicago in October. The Clay Place offers a warm, comfortable collection of clay bowls, tea cups and vases from gallery veteran Kirk Mangus.

Up the street and over a few blocks to Walnut Street, The Clay Place hosts a solo show of new works by Mangus, a potter who has shown with the gallery since the 1970s. Mangus is originally from Greenville, Mercer County, and currently teaches at Kent State University.

The lines of his bowls, mugs, cups and vases undulate and appear to melt all over themselves. In some cases, the handles of the mugs still look like they're wet and in some, the glaze drips down the side like icing on a sticky bun.

Mangus' pottery also takes on a distinctly Asian flavor; flowers, insects and the faces of the women who adorn some of the vases, pots and cups recall inhabitants of the Far East. Mangus himself has studied and taught in Korea; he also has a piece in the permanent collection of the Seoul National Museum of Contemporary Art.

A collection of 10 small vases and containers has been fired to take on a terracotta tone; these pieces, delicate and almost dainty, decorated with small, drippy scrolls along the sides, have the air of relics found in a Cambodian temple.

Three hefty vases that sit toward the front of the gallery have been rendered in rolling shades of olive green. Each is dotted with carved symbols, tiny fish and the heads of insects, a recurring theme in his pieces. In some cases, the form of the pottery itself mimics the segmented bodies of these bugs.

While it's perhaps less strictly finished than the glass works at the Morgan gallery, the Mangus collection at The Clay Place has a quiet elegance; the mugs and cups are artistic expressions someone isn't afraid to touch, handle, and most importantly, use. A piece from the Morgan gallery's show is a guaranteed eye-catcher; a piece from The Clay Place has more subtle beauty.