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Jun Kaneko Studio                                                             View this email in your browser
NEWS FROM THE JUN KANEKO STUDIO
STUDIO
 
Jun Kaneko has been working on Raku pieces in Cuernavaca, Mexico and large-scale sculptures in Omaha.
LARGE-SCALE SCULPTURES
Jun Kaneko Studio
Omaha, Nebraska

Jun Kaneko returned to Omaha in February from a raku work session in Mexico. Waiting for him at his S. 20th Street ceramic studio were six 9-foot-tall triangle Dangos and three 11-foot tall triangle Dangos that had been built before he left.  These sculptures are checked constantly during the drying process, which will take 12-18 months at this scale. The pieces are in a makeshift drying room created with plastic sheeting for walls. This creates a humid environment so they can dry slowly and uniformly.
Kaneko inspects the drying Dangos with Studio Manager Trevor Lare. Photos by Ree Kaneko.
Kaneko inspects the pieces in the early stages of slow drying by laying his hands on the sculpture to feel the amount of moisture still within the clay body, ensuring it is drying evenly and at the correct rate. Pieces are covered and uncovered every day with plastic. In the beginning, they are uncovered for 3 hours a day, and after about five months, they are uncovered 4-5 hours a day. The 9-foot triangles will weigh an estimated 2,000 lbs when finished, and the 11-ft triangles will be 3,000 lbs. These are the largest Dangos of this triangle shape created to date. Shortly after these triangle Dangos were built, two 9-foot-tall Dangos and two 12-foot-tall Dangos were also constructed.
Scaffolding is used to reach the tops of the sculptures as they grow taller in the building process. Photo by Ree Kaneko.
After a year of drying, the clay sculptures are loaded into the kiln. Photo by Ree Kaneko.
Kaneko’s other studio site in the Old Market, which he has maintained since 1988, is also bustling with activity. Jun has been working with his assistants on glazing Heads, Dangos, Ovals, Slabs, and Constructions. They are also building new ceramic sculptures at this studio site.
Photos by Ree Kaneko.
RAKU SESSION
Trate Arte / Arte Kuan Studio
Cuernavaca, Mexico

Shortly after Christmas 2019, Jun Kaneko traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico, to begin a ceramic work session that lasted through February 2020. Kaneko has returned to Cuernavaca nearly every year since 2012 to work in Juan de Dios Sanchez’s Trate Arte studio.
This session produced several 36'' x 36'' Slabs, weighing approximately 60 lbs each. Flat forms of this size can be very difficult to accomplish in ceramics. It has taken over one year of experimentation to succeed at casting this shape Kaneko designed. This form gives him ample space to paint with glazes. Several Head and Dango sculptures were also created during this session.
Juan de Dios Sanchez and Jun Kaneko at Sanchez's studio in early 2020. Photos by Ree Kaneko.
Trate Arte studio specializes in the Raku process. For this process, the glazed ceramic piece is pulled glowing hot out of a nearly 2000° kiln and placed in newspaper-lined chamber, which is then sealed. This creates a reduction atmosphere as the newspaper combusts. The slab absorbs the smoke and this alters the glazes and gives them some very special qualities.
Trate Arte studio assistants remove a hot slab from the kiln and lower a reduction chamber over it. Photos by Ree Kaneko.
For more pictures of the Raku process, view a slideshow by photographer Takashi Hatakeyama of Kaneko's Raku work sessions on our Youtube channel.
ROAD CONSTRUCTION
Old Market
Omaha, Nebraska

    The City of Omaha is currently doing extensive construction on the historic cobbled streets outside Jun Kaneko Studio and KANEKO to repair decades of deterioration. The streetcar rails have been removed from Jones Street, but the original stone and bricks have been reused to recobble the new street surface. The trees planted outside the studio during the 1988 renovation will remain in place, shading the widened sidewalks and new planter beds.
    Jones Street from 12th to 13th opened back up in October, while 12th Street between Jones and Jackson is scheduled to reopen in early December.
   
Photos by Ree Kaneko.
NEW WORK

We welcome you to enjoy this selection of new ceramic works from 2020.
You can visit the NEW WORKS page of our website to view more new pieces.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS & INSTALLATIONS
 
We hope you have a chance to safely experience these exhibitions in person or to share them with your friends and colleagues.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S MARTIN HOUSE
The Space Between: Frank Lloyd Wright | Jun Kaneko
July 23, 2020 - October 3, 2021

This exhibition is installed on the grounds of the Darwin Martin House in Buffalo, NY.  It was opened to the public on July 23rd and will run through October 3, 2021. 

See a slideshow of the installation process on our Youtube channel.

This exhibition is a collaboration between the Albright-Knox's Public Art Initiative and the Martin House. The exhibition was organized by Albright-Knox Curator of Public Art Aaron Ott and Martin House Curator Susana Tejada.

News about the exhibition:

For more information, please visit the Albright Knox's website.
Photo by Trevor Lare.
NATIONAL CRAFTS MUSEUM
Kanazawa, Japan

A Jun Kaneko sculpture (pictured below) has been permanently installed in the entrance of the National Crafts Museum's new location in Kanazawa City, Ishakawa Prefecture. The museum (formerly known as the Crafts Gallery, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) was relocated from Tokyo and held a grand opening in Kanazawa on October 25th.

See more photos courtesy of the museum.

For more information about the museum, please visit the National Crafts Museum's website.
Jun Kaneko. Untitled, Dango, 2013. Hand built and glazed ceramics, 124'' h x 56'' w x 34'' d. Installed in the entrance of the National Crafts Museum. Photo by Takumi Ota. Image provided courtesy of the Museum.
MUSEUM OF ORIENTAL CERAMICS
Osaka, Japan

Mr. Ryunsuke Kasahara donated a Jun Kaneko sculpture (pictured below) to the collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka. This world-renowned museum is home to over 6,000 pieces of East Asian ceramics, from ancient to contemporary, some of which are designated national treasures and important cultural assets. Mr. Kasahara, an esteemed art dealer and collector, was founder and C.E.O. of Gallery Kasahara in Japan for over 40 years.
Jun Kaneko. Untitled, Dango, 2014. Hand built and glazed ceramics, 122'' h x 56.5'' w x 39.5'' d. Photo by Colin Conces. ©Jun Kaneko Studio L.L.C.
HENRY DOORLY ZOO & AQUARIUM
Omaha, Nebraska

A new installation of the Garden of Tanuki at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo will open in Spring 2021. After their initial installation at the Durham Bear Pavilion in 2014, and as temporary habitants near the Skyfari Landing during the Zoo’s renaissance evolution, the new location and garden invites visitors to a reflective yet whimsical experience with the Artist’s contemporary interpretation of Japan's folkloric Tanuki.
Photo by Jun Kaneko Studio.
The Garden of Tanuki can be found between the Asian Highlands and African Grasslands near the new Harper Event Center and popular Stingray Beach
RITZ CARLTON
Nanjing, China

The new hotel features two large Kaneko sculptures in their expansive lobby.
Jun Kaneko. Untitled, Dango, 2014. Hand-built and glazed ceramics, 123'' h x 57'' w x 40'' d. Photo by D’art The Specialist Art Company LTD.
Jun Kaneko. Untitled, Dango, 2018. Hand-built and glazed ceramics, 83.5'' h x 71.5'' w x 19.5'' d. Photo by D’art The Specialist Art Company LTD.
ARBOR BLOCKS
Seattle, Washington

Vulcan Real Estate has installed five Jun Kaneko Dangos in the outdoor green spaces of this pedestrian-oriented office and retail complex. See more photos courtesy of Vulcan Real Estate.
Installed Dangos at Arbor Block in South Lake Union in Seattle. Commissioned by Vulcan Real Estate. Photo by Lara Swimmer.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Take a look back at these moments from the history of Jun Kaneko Studio.

THE JUN KANEKO STUDIO KILNS

Jun Kaneko has required increasingly larger kilns to create his ceramic works in a studio setting. Since moving to Omaha in 1986, the first of these was a large car kiln Kaneko built for the Bemis Foundation on South Eleventh Street. At this period in his career, this location was one of only three in the world where Kaneko could achieve his large-scale ceramic work (the other two being the European Ceramic Work Centre in the Netherlands, and the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan.)
Jun Kaneko and Mark Masuoka loading the kiln in 1987. Photo by Jun Kaneko Studio.

In 1988, Jun Kaneko purchased the 40,000-square-foot building at the corner of 12th and Jones Streets and renovated it to become his new studio. Two large car kilns were constructed at the Jones Street studio in 1995. They remain in use today.
Sugi Kazuaki building kilns at Jun Kaneko Studio in 1995. Photo by Susan Schonlau.

A decade later, Kaneko acquired a second studio space in Omaha on S. 20th street. Jun Kaneko Studio's newest and largest kiln was constructed at this studio in 2012. Kaneko's largest studio-built works are fired in this kiln.
Kaneko stands in the steel framework of the S. 20th Street kiln under construction in 2012. Photo by Ree Kaneko. / The completed kiln being loaded in 2013. Photo by Takashi Hatakeyama.
PRESS
We have gathered recent articles and publications about Jun Kaneko that we hope you will enjoy and share.
Jun Kaneko in 2020. Photo by Ree Kaneko.
NEW BOOK

Proudly announcing the release of Jun Kaneko: The Space Between published by Scheidegger & Spiess. Headquartered in Zürich, Shiedegger & Spiess is an award-winning international publisher of arts and design books. The author, Glen R. Brown, is professor of twentieth-century and contemporary art history, theory, and criticism at Kansas State University. This beautiful volume was expertly printed and bound in Italy, with the artist's yellow glaze cover variant (pictured below) available exclusively from Jun Kaneko Studio starting in January 2021. Please visit our website for purchasing information.

$75
Hardback
264 pages
209 color and 15 b&w illustrations
24 x 30 cm
From the publisher:

"This book offers an entirely new and detailed survey and analysis of nearly six decades of Kaneko’s work in ceramics, drawing, painting, installation art, and opera design. Tracing the career of this dynamic artist from his early training and subsequent association with the pivotal California Clay Movement to his important public commissions and philanthropic concerns of the present, it focuses in particular on the past twenty years, which have previously not been the subject of a comprehensive volume.

Drawing extensively on interviews he has conducted with Jun Kaneko since 2002, Glen R. Brown reflects on the principal concepts that have shaped Kaneko’s art, situating them in the space between a Japanese Shinto ethos and the aesthetic tenets of Western art informel and Post-Painterly Abstraction. These concepts provide context for in-depth discussion of Kaneko’s art, from the colossal glazed-ceramic Dangos to the sensitive coloristic stage and costume designs for Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute, and Fidelio. From these, a fascinating picture emerges of Kaneko’s unique, relentlessly self-sustaining creative process and the multiple conceptions of space that inform it. Featuring two hundred color illustrations and substantial information not previously available in published form, this book offers an up-to-date definitive critical survey of this important artist’s life and work."

TANUKI CATALOG
Jun Kaneko's Tanukis are now featured in their very own publication by Jun Kaneko Studio. You can view the full catalog on Issuu.

AROUND THE WEB

UNTIL NEXT TIME...

We wish you a happy, safe, and healthy holiday season.
Remember to wear your mask!
Kaneko's Impressions installation with one of the Heads wearing a face mask at University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, & Dance in July 2020. Photo by Bria Reiniger.
Copyright © 2020 Jun Kaneko Studio, All rights reserved.

Jun Kaneko Studio
1120 Jones Street
Omaha, NE 68102
ph: 402-341-4523
email: info@junkaneko.com
JunKaneko.com

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