Jun Kaneko

Ceramic Sculptures of Jun Kaneko

December 22, 2009 - March 7, 2010

Jun Kaneko was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1942. He came to the United States in 1963 to continue his painting studies at Chouinard Institute of Art where his focus was drawn to sculptural ceramics through his introduction to Fred Marer and his extensive collection of artworks by contemporary California artists. At this time he also studied with many of the artists who formed The Contemporary Ceramics Movement such as Peter Voulkos, Paul Soldner, John Mason and Jerry Rothman. The following decade, Kaneko taught at some of the nation's leading art schools, including Scripps College, Cranbrook Academy of Art and Rhode Island School of Design. Mr. Kaneko is a prolific artist, who learns by process and through the dialog between maker and object, a distance he is constantly challenging, achieving an intimacy with his medium where his bold hand can seem invisible. Mainly identified as a sculptor, Jun Kaneko also works on equally technical and innovative levels in glass, textiles, bronze, paper and canvas. This exhibition is an extensive representation of Jun's work in ceramic sculpture, drawings and paintings over the past two decades. Currently, Jun Kaneko lives and works in a large four story warehouse converted into his studio and home in Omaha, Nebraska. His prolific roster of diverse work appears annually in numerous international solo and group exhibitions and is included in more than forty museum collections. To date he has realized over twenty five public art commissions around the world and has been honored with national, state and organization fellowships and an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London. The showing here is part of a ten city national tour taking place over a two and a half year period containing approximately thirty nine ceramic artworks, paintings, and works on paper from the collection of the Kaneko Studio. The exhibition was curated by Jun Kaneko and was developed and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, an exhibition tour development company in Kansas City, Missouri.