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Jun Kaneko closed out 2022 with the completion of his largest bronze sculpture to date, Dream, installed at the newly renovated Gene Leahy Mall in Omaha, Nebraska. The studio also completed building four 11-ft dangos in December. Looking forward into the new year, preparations are underway for Omaha Symphony's "Kaneko & Akiho" in March 2023.
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Four 11-foot-tall Dangos were built over the fall and winter of 2022. The sculptures will need 18-20 months to dry before they can be bisque fired. Photo by Trevor Lare.
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OMAHA SYMPHONY | DICK & MARY HOLLAND LEADERSHIP AWARD
Kaneko & Akiho
Friday, Mar 17, 2023 | 7:30 PM
Saturday, Mar 18, 2023 | 7:30 PM
Holland Center, Omaha, NE
The Omaha Symphony will be celebrating Ree & Jun Kaneko with the Dick and Mary Holland Leadership award at a special performance this spring. The show will include music from the three operas designed by Jun Kaneko: Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Fidelio (Beethoven), and The Magic Flute (Mozart).
As part of the award, Ree and Jun were tasked with selecting a composer to create a musical interpretation of Jun's visual artistry for the Symphony. The Kanekos chose Andy Akiho for the commission. The highlight of the performance will be the world premiere of Akiho's original composition, in which he will use Kaneko's artworks as instruments.
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Andy Akiho finding pitches with mallets on one of Kaneko's bronze Heads. Photo by Omaha Symphony staff.
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Akiho experiments with using Kaneko's ceramic sculptures as instruments inside the studio's giant kiln. Photo by Trevor Lare.
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Andy Akiho is a GRAMMY-nominated American composer and Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is Oregon Symphony Orchestra's 2022-2023 composer-in-residence and is internationally acclaimed for his works that "emphasize the natural theatricality of live performance." Akiho visited the studio multiple times over the past year while working on this new composition. We look forward to experiencing what will surely be an unforgettable fusion of the musical and visual arts. This event is not to be missed!
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Kaneko and Akiho explore the sounds made with a bow drawn across the tabs on the bronze Head. Photo by Omaha Symphony staff.
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Somerset House
Collect Art Fair
March 3 - 5, 2023
Previews March 1-2
London
Jun Kaneko will be among the artists represented by Traver Gallery at Collect 2023 this spring. This international craft and design-focused fair will feature the work of over 400 artists working in glass, ceramics, metals, wood, fiber, and more. For tickets and information, visit somersethouse.org/uk.
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Jun Kaneko, untitled, 2018, hand built and glazed ceramics, 18'' h x 20.25'' w x 7'' d. Photo by Colin Conces.
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USC Pacific Asia Museum
Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation
March 10 - June 25, 2023
Pasadena, CA
The Global Asias exhibition opens at its fifth and final stop on June 4th at the USC Pacific Asia Museum. The exhibition includes the artists Kwang-Young Chun, Jacob Hashimoto, Jun Kaneko, Hiroki Morinoue, Dinh Q. Le, Barbara Takenaga, Roger Shimomura, Do Ho Suh, Rirkirt Tiravanjia, Hung Liu, Takashi Murakami, Akio Takamori, and Patti Warashina. The first stop on the exhibition's tour, the The Palmer Museum, prepared a virtual interactive tour of the exhibit.
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Traver Gallery
Jun Kaneko
May 4 - June 24, 2023
Seattle, WA
Save the date for a solo show at Traver Gallery featuring new ceramic works.
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PORTLAND JAPANESE GARDEN
The Art of Jun Kaneko: Garden of Resonance
October 1, 2022 - February 20th, 2023
Portland, OR
Garden of Resonance draws to a close this month at the Portland Japanese Garden. The exhibition includes sculpture installations throughout the gardens, as well as paintings, drawings, and smaller sculptures in their Pavilion Gallery.
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A member of the Portland Japanese Garden grounds team rearranges moss after the installation of two Dangos. Each sculpture's placement in the gardens is done with great sensitivity to the aesthetic and botanical balance of this curated landscape. Photo by Jonathan Ley courtesy Portland Japanese Garden.
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Dream
Gene Leahy Mall at The Riverfront
Omaha, Nebraska, USA
For most of 2022, something truly monumental was forming at Artworks Foundry in Berkeley, California: Jun Kaneko's newest and largest bronze sculpture, Dream.
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The bronze Head portion of Dream is made of 103 cast panels welded together. Photo by Artworks Foundry.
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A worker grinds the surface of the head smooth. Photo by Artworks Foundry.
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Jun Kaneko inspects the primed surface of the head by feeling for imperfections. Photo by Ree Kaneko.
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The head is sprayed with multiple coats of enamel paint and clear coat for a glossy, durable finish. Photo by Artworks Foundry.
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On a blustery day in December, 2022, the bronze Head component of Kaneko's newest public artwork was brought to Gene Leahy Mall in Omaha.
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The 16-ft Head, shown here wrapped in protective sheeting, is so tall it had to be transported on its side. Photo by Maggie Sather.
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The Head being lifted by crane onto a concrete support structure. Photo by Maggie Sather.
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The sculpture was installed at the east end of the pond, facing west.
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A team from Kiewit conducts the installation. Photo by Susan Schonlau.
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Now complete with a striped granite base, Dream stands approximately 20 feet tall. Photo by Jun Kaneko studio.
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Dream (2022) isn't the first Head Jun Kaneko has created in bronze. The artist has collaborated with two bronze foundries over the years to create a number of bronze heads.
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BRONZE HEADS
Artworks Foundry & Walla Walla Foundry
Berkeley, CA and Walla Walla, WA
Jun Kaneko first worked with Artworks Foundry to make a pair of bronze heads in 2002. Artworks Foundry is a major fine arts bronze casting studio in Berkeley, California that has been in operation since 1977. This same foundry cast Peter Voulkos' iconic "stack" sculptures in bronze.
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Kaneko and Artworks Foundry Founder Piero Mussi viewing Peter Voulkos' bronzes. Undated photo (likely early 2000s). Photo courtesy Jun Kaneko Studio.
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A bronze artisan at Artworks Foundry uses torch heat and a liquid chemical solution to create a patina on the surface of the bronze. 2002. Photo by Ree Kaneko.
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For Jun's first pair of bronze Heads, he embraced the bronze's innate reactivity with oxygen, moisture, heat and chemicals, to create colors and patterns on the surface of the sculptures. Kaneko has returned to Artworks Foundry several times since 2002 to create more bronze pieces that have made their way to collectors and public art projects all over the world. He has experimented with a variety finishes and embellishments to the surface of the metal.
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Jun Kaneko working at Artworks Foundry in 2007 placing tab forms on the sculpture. Photo by Vivienne Flesher.
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Jun Kaneko drawing placements for tabs on a head at Artworks Foundry in 2015. Photo by Ree Kaneko.
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Before Dream was cast at Artworks Foundry in 2022, Kaneko's previous largest heads were made at Walla Walla Foundry in Washington state, in 2009. These 9-ft heads were cast from molds of a ceramic Head created at the Mission Clay facility in Pittsburg, KS.
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A technician removing the multi-part mold from Kaneko's ceramic Head sculpture at Jun Kaneko Studio in Omaha, 2009. The mold was then taken to Walla Walla Foundry. Photo by Takashi Hatakeyama.
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Kaneko applying enamel paints to the surface of a bronze Head at Walla Walla Foundry, 2009. Photo by Ree Kaneko.
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Walla Walla Foundry has been in operation since 1980, and has collaborated on large-scale works with the likes of Jim Hodges, Deborah Butterfield, Lynda Benglis, Ursula Von Rydingsvard, Jim Dine, and Kiki Smith.
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Kaneko working on 4-ft bronze Heads at Walla Walla Foundry in 2010. Photo by Ree Kaneko.
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