JUN KANEKO Waterfall, 2000 glazed ceramic 70 x 27 x 17 inches Price: $56,000 Courtesy of the artist

Jun Kaneko was born in 1942 in Nagoya, Japan and has lived in the United States since 1964, when he began his studies in art. Though he began as a painter, he shifted to working with noted California ceramic artists including Jerry Rothman, Peter Voulkos and Paul Soldner. Kaneko has exhibited extensively worldwide, and currently maintains his primary studio in Omaha, Nebraska.

The “dango” (which translates from the Japanese as rounded form or, more colloquially, dumpling) is Kaneko’s signature form—a monolithic closed form that provides a subtly contoured surface that the artist uses as a field for various geometric motifs of line and color. Black Dango with Stripes juxtaposes bold angled marks of black, dripping edges providing a decidedly painterly feel, with delicate vertical ribs of color that serve as a spine for the form.