Jun Kaneko

Jun Kaneko was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1942. He studied painting with Satoshi Ogawa during his adolescence - working in his studio during the day and attending high school in the evening. He came to the United States in 1963 to continue his studies at the Chouinard Institute of Art when his introduction to Fred Marer drew him to sculptural ceramics. He also studied with Peter Voulkos, Paul Soldner, and Jerry Rothman in California during the time now defined as The Contemporary Ceramics Movement in America. In the following decade, Kaneko taught at some of the nation’s leading art schools, including Scripps College, Rhode Island School of Design, and Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Based in Omaha since 1986, Jun Kaneko has worked at several experimental studios, including European Ceramic Work Center in The Netherlands, Otsuka Omi Ceramic Company in Japan, Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia, PA, Bullseye Glass in Portland, OR, Acadia Summer Arts Program in Bar Harbor ME, and Aguacate in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In addition, he has partnered with industrial industries throughout his career to realize large-scale, hand-built sculptures. The first was his 1982-1983 Omaha Project at Omaha Brickworks. Later sculptures include his Fremont Project, completed in 1992-1994 in California, and most recently, his Pittsburg Project, completed in 2004-2007 in Kansas. Both of these last series of sculptures were created at Mission Clay Products. This past spring, his exhibition Myths, Legends, and Truths opened at Millennium Park in Chicago. The exhibition features thirteen nine-and-a-half-foot tall Dangos and twenty-three of his Tanukis. This new body of work by Kaneko draws upon the myths and legends of the Tanuki figure.

His artwork appears in numerous international and national solo and group exhibitions annually and is included in over seventy museum collections. He has realized over thirty public art commissions in the United States and Japan and has received national, state, and organization fellowships. Kaneko holds honorary doctorates from the University of Nebraska, the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, and the Royal College of Art in London.

Kaneko is increasingly drawn to installations that promote civic interaction. He has completed over fifty public art commissions, including his two three hundred and fifty-foot long Tile Walls at Aquarium Station in Boston, MA (1993-2000), a 3-story high wall in the Biology library at The University of Connecticut (1997), and at the Mashima Sports Arena in Osaka Japan (1994); permanent plaza installations in Council Bluffs and Des Moines, IA (2007 and 2013), at Bartle Hall and Convention Center in Kansas City, KS (2006), and at the International Finance Center in Shanghai, China (2012). In 2014 his fifty-six-foot tall Glass Tower, Plaza Design, and Tile Wall will be permanently installed in Lincoln, NE.

In 1998, he and his wife, Ree Kaneko, formed a non-profit cultural organization in Omaha, Nebraska, called KANEKO, that explores and encourages the process of creativity. KANEKO is headquartered in landmark, turn-of-the-century warehouses in the Old Market District of Omaha, Nebraska. Jun Kaneko continues his dedication to life as an artist and a cultural catalyst for the region.

The Nevica Project is actively looking for artwork by Jun Kaneko. If you have pieces and are interested in selling, please contact us. Also if you are searching for specific pieces, let us know so we can assist you.