Tropical Reflection:
Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture by Jun Kaneko
February 10-June 6, 2006

Jun Kaneko is perhaps the best known ceramic sculptor working today. His largely abstract and monumental forms in clay require the skill of a master with the highest technical capabilities. Kaneko was born in 1942 in Nagoya, Japan and has lived and worked in the United States since the early 1960s. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, University of California, Berkeley where he studied under the legendary Peter Voulkos.

Upon his first visit to Hawaii in 1995, Kaneko created over sixty drawings and paintings from his first impressions of the lands. Since then, upon repeat visits, Kaneko has continued to create drawings and paintings based on Hawaiian mythology, waterfalls, and waves. He has explained his use of paint while in Hawaii as a means of capturing his emotional response to the lush exotic vegetation, fresh air, and light using bold mark-making techniques with Sumi ink and oil sticks. His paintings express the essence of the land and it's dance with the ocean, while also referring to such elements as the wind, clouds, rain, rivers, and the elegantly walking tangles of tree roots that seem to move along the shorelines. Thus, this group of works demonstrates Hawaii's exuberant energy through Kaneko's eyes. In addition, several of the monumental clay sculptures or dangos (Japanese for ãclosed formä), for which he is best known, complement this exhibition of Kaneko's Hawaiian drawings exhibited for the first time in Honolulu at The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center.