“Kaneko’s Monumental Risk,” the new one-hour documentary that follows world-renown Omaha artist Jun Kaneko as he pushes the boundaries of ceramics, bronze, glass and steel in places like San Francisco; Kyoto, Japan; New York; Shanghai; and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; will air at 7 p.m. Feb. 11 and 9 p.m. Feb. 17, on NET.
Jun Kaneko’s work, in Lincoln’s Historic Haymarket, Omaha’s Joslyn Art Museum, the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney or cities around the globe, is distinct.
Kaneko likes to take risks - monumental risks. His restless imagination drives his fusion of Japanese traditional art and American modernism into massive projects. These include 14-ton ceramic sculptures and 80-foot tall stained glass towers. His newest project, perhaps his most daring new adventure, is the three-hour projected animation on seven screens for the San Francisco Opera’s new $5 million-production of Mozart’s “Magic Flute.”
Emmy award-winning Nebraska filmmaker Joel Geyer has been following Kaneko for 25 years. Geyer explored the evolution of Kaneko’s life adventures from the bombing of his childhood home in Nagoya, Japan, during World War II, settling in Omaha in the mid-1980s, and up to the San Francisco opera’s premiere.
“For everyone who has enjoyed a Japanese garden, they already have insight into Jun Kaneko’s creative soul,” Geyer said. “A Japanese garden doesn’t look carefully designed. It looks natural. But it isn’t.”
