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Jun Kaneko’s most recognized sculptural form is the boldly glazed, monumental dango (it’s Japanese for “dumpling”). An enormous, rounded monolith, the dango presents visual pleasure and straightforward formal delight. As the distinguished philosopher and critic Arthur C. Danto has noted, “They communicate instantaneously their friendly and reconciling assurances, and wear the real world as well as the brilliant coverings that Kaneko has given them.”
When Kaneko first arrived in Los Angeles from Japan in 1963, he stayed at the home of legendary collector Fred Marer. An aspiring young painter, Kaneko was exposed to a comprehensive collection of revolutionary work by ceramic artists such as John Mason, Peter Voulkos, Jerry Rothman and Ken Price.The portentous encounter with those artists’ work, now four decades old, was a formative experience. “Once I saw all of this,” Kaneko has said, “it was impossible not to be interested in ceramics.”
Jun Kaneko, born in Nagoya, Japan in 1942, has consistently followed his own path and continually experimented with the technical aspects of the ceramic medium. His enormous dango forms, which range as high as eleven feet, challenge the physical limitations of the material and the firing process. Also, in his work at the European Ceramics Work Center, he has succeeded in applying extraordinary glaze color to ceramic tile and slabs, boldly painting in a direct and graphic manner.
Kaneko’s innate architectural abilities figure prominently throughout his work and his installations. Early in his career, the artist spent over three years building a compound of structures, including a studio, near Nagura, Japan. He still maintains an active interest in building, and is currently working on a large-scale project in Omaha, Nebraska. As Kaneko wrote in 1996, “Oftentimes I am asked why I make such large-scale work. In making any object, we cannot escape the problems of scale. I believe each form has one right scale. Whether I’m making a large or small object, in the end I hope it will make sense to have that particular scale and form together and that it will give off enough visual energy to shake the air around it.”
The artist’s sense of spatial organization has afforded him the opportunity to realize several public sculpture commissions, including the Phoenix Airport, a station for the Boston Subway, the Detroit People Mover, the Waikiki Aquarium and over a dozen others. These are in addition to his impressive list of works in major museum collections, such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The De Young Museum in San Francisco, the Shigaraki Museum, and thirty others.
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Education
1970 Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California
1966 University of California, Berkeley, California
1964 Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles
California Institute of Art, Los Angeles
Jerry Rothman’s studio, Paramount, California
Museum Collections
Aichi-Prefecture Museum of Ceramics
Arabia Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Banff Centre of Fine Arts, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Canada
California State University, Sacramento, California
Cranbrook Academy of Art/Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
De Young Museum, San Francisco, California
Detroit Institute of Art
European Ceramic Work Centre, s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Gifu-Ken Museum, Gifu, Japan
Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii
Japan Foundation, Tokyo, Japan
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
The Marer Collection at Scripps College, Claremont, California
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York
Museum Het Kruithis, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu, Hawaii
The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Japan
The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, Japan
Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan
Northern Arizona State University, Flagstaff, Arizona
Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Scripps College, Claremont, California
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska
Shigaraki Ceramic Museum, Shigaraki, Japan
Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery
Takamatsu City Art
Toyota City Museum, Toyota, Japan
Webber State University, Ogden, Utah
Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Arts, Yamaguchi, Japan
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2001 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica
University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, Wyoming
Nicolayson Art Museum, Casper, Wyoming
Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii
Bullseye Connection, Portland, Oregon
LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, New Yorl
Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas
2000 William Traver Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Durango Arts Center, Durango, Colorado
Klein Artworks, Chicago, Illinois
Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, California
1999 The Art Center in Hargate, St. Paul’s School, Concord, New Hampshire
Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1998 Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
Lewis and Clark College, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Portland, Oregon
Stroke, Osaka, Japan
Center of the Earth Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco, California
William Campbell Contemporary Art Inc., Fort Worth, Texas
Klein Art Works, Chicago, Illinois
1997 Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
Academy of Art, Leuven, Belgium
1996 Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco, California
Horwich Lew Allen Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1996 Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem, Netherlands
1995 Klein Art Works, Chicago
Kasahara Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Gallery Takagi, Nagoya, Japan
1994 Indigo Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida
Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
Horwich Lew Allen Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco
1993 Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
Leedy Voulkos Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri
1992 Mark Masuoka Gallery, Las Vegas
Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco
Klein Art Works, Chicago, Illinois
Helen Drutt Gallery, New York
1991 Gallery Takagi, Nagoya, Japan
Brendan Walter Gallery, Santa Monica
Gallery Kasahara, Osaka, Japan
1990 Blue Star Space, San Antonio, Texas
Southwest Craft Center, San Antonio, Texas
Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco
Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
Leedy Voulkos Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri
Manchester Craftsman Guild, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Klein Art Works, Chicago, Illinois
1989 Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, Iowa
Gallery Takagi, Nagoya, Japan
New Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska
Galerie Barbara Silverberg, Toronto, Canada
Brendan Walter Gallery, Santa Monica
1988 Paul Klein Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Kansas City Contemporary Art Center, Kansas City, Missouri
Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco
Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
1987 Gallery Kasahara, Osaka, Japan
Gallery Takagi, Nagoya, Japan
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska
Arabia Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
Heath Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
1986 Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas
Klein Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1985 Laumeier Sculpture Garden, St. Louis, Missouri
Tweed Museum, Duluth, Minnesota
1984 Public Square, Belleville, Illinois
Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Fabric Workshop Gallery, New York
Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri
1983 Norman Fire House Art Center, Norman, Oklahoma
Paul Klein Gallery, Chicago
Quay Gallery, San Francisco
Gallery Takagi, Nagoya, Japan
Yaw Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
Ree Schonlau Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska
Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1982 Morgan Gallery, Shawnee Mission, Kansas
New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University, Alfred, New York
Betty Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas
1981 Banff Centre of Fine Art, Walter Phillips Gallery, Canada
Gallery Takagi, Nagoya, Japan
Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1980 Gallery Toen, Shigaraki, Japan
1979 Clayworks Studio Workshop, New York
Gallery Takagi, Nagoya, Japan
1978 Gallery Takagi, Nagoya, Japan
1977 Coa Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
1975 Woods-Gerry Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design
1971 Mori’s Form, Osaka, Japan
1969 Eldorado Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
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