Jun Kaneko

Jun Kaneko must be regarded as one of the most exciting clay artists working in the world today. Quite a statement; yet, when one considers the sheer volume of his production, the unprecedented scale of his work, the magnitude of his technical achievements and, of course, the unbelievable elegance of his ceramic shapes, patterns and glazings, few other artists come to mind.

Kaneko works not only with ceramic sculptures, but also with a variety of other media, such as painting, drawing, metal, glass and installation. It's no wonder he has developed an international reputation.

Jun Kaneko was born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1942, during the Second World War. At the age of 2, Kaneko's parents sent him to live with his grandparents in the mountains to avoid bombings in the city. His grandparents offered him a strict but formal education that enriched his mind and provided many opportunities for him to learn about the natural world and about other cultures.

By the time Kaneko attended high school, he rebelled against the rigid Japanese education system. Ultimately, the talented young man was allowed to study drawing and painting with an independent instructor during the day, and he continued to work on his art while finishing high school at night. Following his graduation, Kaneko won first prize in a regional art competition, an accomplishment that, in turn, led him to further develop his studies of art in America.

In 1963 Kaneko came to the United States to continue his painting studies. His focus was drawn to sculptural ceramics when he met Fred Marer and explored his extensive collection of artworks by contemporary California ceramic artists and was introduced to the California ceramic scene.

Kaneko studied at Chouinard Institute of Art in Los Angeles and, later, also studied with many of the artists who formed that 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 Rhode Island School of Design and Scripps College in Claremont, Calif.

Following his teaching experiences in the United States, Kaneko returned to Japan, eager to learn about Japanese ceramics and to build his own studio. After a long search for a suitable site, his next challenge was to find affordable materials to construct his large studio. Eventually he settled on telephone poles and railroad ties.

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In 1978, after three years of labor-intensive work, he opened his complex, which contains a house, a studio and a five-unit kiln shed. Soon thereafter, Kaneko returned to the United States to do a workshop in New York City. While there he was interviewed for a position at Cranbook Academy of Art and decided to teach there rather than return to Japan. In the following decade he earned several prestigious fellowships, including two from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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In 1981 Kaneko made a connection that significantly changed his career. Ree Schonlau, the director of a nonprofit art program in Omaha, Neb., invited the artist to the Midwest with the possibility of using gigantic beehive kilns at the Omaha Brickworks to create rare sculptural objects. When Kaneko saw the enormous kiln, he thought, "Should I make 50,000 cups or a few big pieces?" He decided on the latter, thus dramatically altering his approach to art.

Kaneko slowly refined his approach to large-scale clay sculpture, adding file installations of almost limitless scale, and his most significant creation, the "Dango." The Dango shape, which in Japanese refers to a rounded form, can be tall or squat, and oval, round of triangular. Most of them are of unprecedented size and weight for contemporary ceramic sculpture, with small pieces weighing hundreds of pounds and large pieces weighing several tons!

Along with his Dangos, Kaneko explored the shape of a human head as an art form, thus creating a greater challenge than simply working with naturalistic or basic geometric shapes. The closed eyes and enigmatic expressions on these 6- to 10-foot-tall monuments hint at inner tranquility when standing alone or a psychological tension when placed in a pair.

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After his large slabs, tiles and Dangos are shaped, dried and bisque fired, they are glazed with a wide range of pure colors--black, white, gray, bright or dark blue, golden yellow, red, pink and metallic bronze--and covered with a pattern of dots, drips, stripes, squares, splashes or lines that complement the shape of the piece. Some patterns are distinctly two-dimensional, while others give a sense of floating in a shallow space around the object.

In addition to his clay sculptures, Kaneko has always worked simultaneously in other media, including drawing, painting and glasswork. Since his early years in Japan, drawing has routinely been the basis for his two- and three-dimensional designs. On various textures of paper, Kaneko can endlessly experiment with inks and paints, which stay within his chosen color palette, applied with a variety of tools. The procedure is rapid and the process is immediate, compared to the ceramic medium.