Kirk Mangus - A pot, a joke, a rhythm, a theory - Exhibitions

Images

KIRK MANGUS

Green Guardian, 2008

Earthenware and colored slips and glazes

16 1/2 x 13 x 13 1/2 in.

JCG8364

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KIRK MANGUS

Kat, 2008

Earthenware and colored slips and glazes

16 1/2 x 12 x 14 in.

JCG8365

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KIRK MANGUS

Pearl, 2008

Earthenware and colored slips and glazes

11 1/2 x 9 x 10 1/2 in.

JCG8367

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KIRK MANGUS

Life In Suspension, 1989

Ink on mulberry paper

56 1/2 x 28 3/4 in.

JCG8346

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KIRK MANGUS

Bountiful Life Red Luster, 1986

Luster glazed earthenware

8 1/2 x 11 x 5 in.

JCG8617

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KIRK MANGUS

Red Luster Floating World, 1986

Luster glazed earthenware

4 3/4 x 9 7/8 x 4 1/4 in.

JCG8618

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KIRK MANGUS

Only Cat, 1994

Luster glazed earthenware

4 3/4 x 8 1/8 x 3 1/4 in.

JCG8620

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KIRK MANGUS

Three Ships Amphora, 2009

Glazed earthenware

12 1/4 x 4 x 4 in.

JCG8622

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KIRK MANGUS

Flow of Life Bottle, 1999

Salt glazed stoneware

16 1/4 x 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.

JCG8400

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KIRK MANGUS

Two Femme Vase, 1986

Carved and wood fired stoneware

16 x 4 3/4 x 4 in.

JCG8404

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KIRK MANGUS

Dreaming Blue, 1980

Reduction glazed porcelain

11 1/4 x 4 x 4 in.

JCG8623

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KIRK MANGUS

Man Swimming In the Ocean of Life, 1980

Wood fired porcelain

8 1/2 x 6 1/4 x 6 1/4 in. including lid

JCG8625

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KIRK MANGUS

Friendly Creatures In the Garden, 1997

Glazed porcelain

3 1/2 x 7 1/8 x 7 in.

JCG8610

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KIRK MANGUS

Pale King Carrot, 1984

Salt glazed porcelain

8 1/2 x 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

JCG8613

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KIRK MANGUS

Over Seas, 1980

Glazed porcelain

10 x 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.

JCG8607

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KIRK MANGUS

King Carrot Head, 1984

Salt glazed porcelain

8 x 4 5/8 x 4 1/2 in.

JCG8614

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KIRK MANGUS

Two Men and Two Houses Face Vase,1982

Earthenware and colored slips and glazes

10 1/4 x 6 x 4 3/4 in.

JCG8611

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KIRK MANGUS

David and Insect Face Vase, 1982

Earthenware and colored engobes

9 5/8 x 5 1/4 x 4 1/4 in.

JCG8612

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KIRK MANGUS

Bunny Love Amphora, 1992

Luster glazed earthenware

12 1/4 x 6 1/4 x 6 in.

JCG8615

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KIRK MANGUS

Jacky Amphora, 1993

Salt and luster glazed stoneware

9 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.

JCG8616

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KIRK MANGUS

Pinky Face, 2009

Glazed earthenware

9 1/4 x 4 3/4 x 4 1/2 in. including lid

JCG8626

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KIRK MANGUS

Golden Guardian and Girl, 2009

Glazed earthenware

9 1/4 x 6 x 6 in. including lid

JCG8629

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KIRK MANGUS

Golden Child, 2009

Glazed earthenware

9 1/4 x 6 x 6 in. including lid

JCG8628

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KIRK MANGUS

Basket Ziggurat, 2008

Glazed earthenware

16 1/2 x 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.

JCG8621

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KIRK MANGUS

A Day In the Neighborhood, 1999

Ink on mulberry paper

17 x 12 1/2 in.

JCG8431

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KIRK MANGUS

Mermaid in Paradise, 1999

Ink on mulberry paper

17 x 12 1/2 in.

JCG8434

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KIRK MANGUS

Journey to Yelpa, 1999

Ink on mulberry paper

17 x 12 1/2 in.

JCG8429

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KIRK MANGUS

Views,1999

Ink on mulberry paper

17 x 12 1/2 in.

JCG8432

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KIRK MANGUS

The Gang, 1990

Ink on mulberry paper

17 x 12 1/2 in.

JCG8411

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KIRK MANGUS

Everyone Was There, 1988

Ink on mulberry paper

17 x 12 1/2 in.

JCG8418

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KIRK MANGUS

Basket Head, 1988

Ink on mulberry paper

17 x 12 1/2 in.

JCG8416

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KIRK MANGUS

Basket Armor, 1988

Ink on mulberry paper

17 x 12 1/2 in.

JCG8425

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KIRK MANGUS

Woven Body, 1989

Ink on mulberry paper

17 x 12 1/2 in.

JCG8426

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KIRK MANGUS

Chubby Bunny, c.1987

Stoneware and colored slips

48 x 24 1/4 x 24 in.

JCG8361

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KIRK MANGUS

Bronze Femme IV, 1986

Stoneware and bronze glaze

38 x 15 x 12 in.

JCG8603

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KIRK MANGUS

Rainbow Femme, c.1987

Stoneware and colored slips

44 1/2 x 21 1/4 x 17 1/2 in.

JCG8362

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KIRK MANGUS

Girl With Ponytail Femme, 1986-87

Stoneware and colored slips

51 1/2 x 20 1/4 x 17 1/4 in.

JCG8360

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KIRK MANGUS

Lakeside Summer Yellow Femme, 1989

Ink and watercolor on paper

87 1/2 x 52 1/4 in.

Inquire

KIRK MANGUS

Animal Love, 1999

Carved and wood fired stoneware

36 x 8 1/2 x 8 in.

JCG8378

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KIRK MANGUS

Two Guardians Jar, 1984

Carved and wood fired stoneware

27 x 16 x 15 1/2 in.

JCG8375

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KIRK MANGUS

Cat Girl On the Farm Jar, 1985

Carved and wood fired stoneware

36 3/4 x 17 1/2 x 17 in.

JCG8368

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KIRK MANGUS

Love & War Amphora, 1998

Carved and wood fired stoneware

30 1/4 x 11 x 10 1/2 in.

JCG8381

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KIRK MANGUS

Wild Life Jar, 1983

Carved and wood fired stoneware

36 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 18 in.

JCG8369

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KIRK MANGUS

Pymatuming, 2000

Ink on mulberry paper

56 1/4 x 28 1/4 in.

JCG8334

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KIRK MANGUS

Cat Girl In Paradise, 1997

Ink on mulberry paper

56 1/2 x 28 1/2 in.

JCG8340

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Press Release

Kirk Mangus - A pot, a joke, a rhythm, a theory - Exhibitions - James Cohan

KIRK MANGUS, Green Guardian, 2008 Earthenware, colored slips and glazes, 16 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.

OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY MAY 20 6-8PM

James Cohan is pleased to present the exhibition A pot, a joke, a rhythm, a theory, by the late Kirk Mangus (1952-2013) opening at the gallery’s Lower East Side location May 20 and running through June 26. Following a major career retrospective at MOCA Cleveland, this is Mangus’s first exhibition in New York and showcases a selection of ceramics and drawings that represent 30 years of the artist’s prolific output.

Mangus was a beloved and celebrated member of the international ceramics community, as well as a dedicated teacher and mentor at Kent State University for over three decades. Over the course of his career, his work drew on a multitude of influences, from comics to prehistoric animal figures, modernist abstraction, American folk, Japanese woodblock prints, Meso-American archetypes, and Asian ceramic traditions.

His graphic sensibility, heavily incised surfaces, as well as custom stamping and applied decoration with signature motifs including animals, plants, and bodies draw equally from Mangus’s observation as from his own invention. A masterful raconteur, Mangus was inspired by the long-standing traditions of storytelling through clay. Creating a mythological world of his daily experience, he developed a rich cast of characters drawn from his own life and interests that populate his drawings and ceramic works.

Characterized by their rough-hewn figures, a playful, gestural style, and experimental glazing, Mangus’s forms teem with life and energy. “I do a lot of drawings,” Mangus wrote, “both on paper and clay. This work is about recording a gesture; putting down a mark…” It is this experimental nature, expression of urgency and untapped stream of creation that unites Mangus’s work across style and medium.

Delighting in finding beauty in the most unlikely of forms, Mangus’s work reveals itself as beautiful through familiarity and consideration. As curator Rose Bouthillier describes, “Mangus sought to re-negotiate concepts of beauty and mastery, proposing an unguarded, impassioned way of thinking, making, living, and loving.”

The subject of numerous solo exhibitions including a major career retrospective, Things Love, at MOCA Cleveland in 2014, Mangus’s work has been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally since the mid-1970s. He has also been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Akron Museum of Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; Seattle Art Museum; Seoul National Museum of Contemporary Art; Gummeson Gallery, Stockholm; and the Finnish Craft Museum, Helsinki.

Mangus’s work is housed in a number of national and international collections, including Amsterdam Municipal Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, Sandy Besser Collection at DeYoung Museum, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Newark Museum of Art; and the Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis.

For press inquiries, please contact Jeffrey Waldron at jwaldron@jamescohan.com or 212-714-9500.

For other inquiries, please contact Allison Galgiani at agalgiani@jamescohan.com or 212-714-9500.

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