Colorbox II

Artist Jun Kaneko (Japanese, b. 1942)

Date2007

DimensionsH: 84 in. (213.4 cm); W: 106 5/8 in. (270.8 cm); Depth: 8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm).

MediumKiln-formed Bullseye glass.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of The Georgia Welles Apollo Society

Object number

2012.20A-H

On View

Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2444 Monroe Street), Glass Pavilion Gallery, Cavity

Label TextConceptually a minimalist, Japanese ceramic artist and sculptor Jun Kaneko responded intuitively to the translucent qualities of glass. He created this large vertical installation of geometric rods shot through with thin layers of bright colors in collaboration with the glass research center Bullseye Glass Connection in Portland, Oregon. Challenging the facility’s technical capabilities, he layered sheets of glass in color sequences, then fused the stacks by kiln-firing them in a mold. Detailed preliminary drawings served him to deconstruct and strip complex visual language in order to communicate the roots of an arcane language of marks and colors. With controlled exuberance the Colorbox series conveys a restrained aesthetic: The challenge of making successful work is to create art that strongly engages the viewer’s imagination in any environmental circumstance in which it is placed and experienced. Nothing exists by itself. Everything exists with the balance or imbalance of its relationship to others. This may be one of my central concerns and interests when creating any work.Published ReferencesBullseye Gallery, Jun Kaneko, press release, March 20, 2007

Speer, Richard, "Best of 2007,” Willamette Week, December 26, 2007

Speer, Richard, "Jun Kaneko: Maximal Minimalist,“ GLASS Quarterly, June 01, 2007 (cover)

Speer, Richard, "Pillars of Glass," Art Ltd. Magazine, May 13, 2008.

Page, Jutta Annette, Peter Morrin and Robert Bell, Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2012, repr. (col.) p. 13, repr. (col.) p. 15, pl. 3, det. (col.) p. 12.

"Recent Important Acquisitions", New Glass Review, 34, 2013, repr. (col.) p. 112.

Exhibition HistoryBullseye Gallery, Portland, OR, Jun Kaneko: New Work, March 20 - August 18, 2007

Portland Japanese Garden, OR, Jun Kaneko, 2008

Art Miami / Bullseye Gallery, 2009

Toledo Museum of Art, Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, June 14-September 9, 2012.