Young Kang's Pottery at Lansdale's Water Gallery

I usually don't travel so far afield to review art, but Water is a new Lansdale gallery and one of its co-founders is an old friend, so I was curious as to what this new undertaking would look like.

Water is modeled on an artists' co-op. The plan seems to be that one of its 11 member artists (or if they work in similar formats, one pair of artists) will be showcased each time, but works by the other members will also be displayed, so you can stop in at any one time and get a sense of the co-op as a whole.

Diverse talents

Thus there's an interesting combination of diversity and inclusiveness to the Water group: Bette Conway and Liat Pisco are jewelers, Andy Szekely works in wood and builds furniture (a striking Weiner Werkstatte-inspired chair in the gallery is his work), John Jones and Aaron Wiener work in glass, Brian Peterson and Amanda Toll are photographers, while Helen Mirkil and Leah Koontz are painters. Mark Wangberg works in mixed media and Young Kang is a potter.

The works are variably priced, but most are eminently affordable. Lansdale seems to be a land of opportunity for the arts, and with its variety of offerings and range of prices, I'll be curious to see how Water fares. Its success may just transform the Dresher Arcade into a veritable artists' bazaar.

A thing for frogs

Young Kang, the featured artist during my visit, is nicely represented by about 100 works representing roughly a quarter-century of her artistic development. Her output is so extensive and varied that at first I made the mistake of assuming that the works of several potters were on display.

Kang explores every facet of her field, from fine porcelain to stoneware, and she creates works that range from the charmingly whimsical (she seems to have a thing for frogs) to the forthrightly utilitarian. But even her serving trays and teacups are distinctive. She doesn't just "do pottery"; everything seems to have its reason.

Thus Kang's various styles always harmonize within their groups. If you don't like her delicate, long-necked vases, you may be taken with her serving trays, which are inspired by (but not kitschy copies of) Abstract Expressionism.

The one thing that binds this large and diverse oeuvre together is the artist's sense of the fitness of the work. Whether it's a large soup tureen decorated with frolicking frogs (in 3-D, yet) or a plain, flat-finished white porcelain serving bowl, the piece is always absolutely apt. It's exactly what it has to be to fulfill itself.