JUN KANEKO

In collaboration with Austin Art Projects, we are proud to present one of the most relevant living sculptors today: 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 those studies at Chouinard Institute of Art. An introduction to collector Fred Marer drew him to sculptural ceramics and he proceeded to study with Peter Voulkos, Paul Soldner, and Jerry Rothman in California during the time now defined as The Contemporary Ceramics Movement in America. 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.

In the ensuing years, Kaneko became recognized primarily as a sculptor with his iconic Dango and Head forms realized in his familiar ceramics as well as bronze. These works have been  widely exhibited  in museums around the world and are included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum of Art. London, the National Gallery of Art, Canberra, and the National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan, among many others. 
Last year the International Sculpture Center awarded the 79-year-old-artist with a Lifetime Achievement Award.