The work of Omaha artist Jun Kaneko, who is featured in the exhibition “Jun Kaneko: Color and Line” at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, will be discussed at an event hosted by The Healing Arts Program on Thursday, June 21. A gallery viewing and reception will follow.
Med center staff, students, patients and families, as well as members of the public, are invited to attend the event.
The artist talk will be held from 4-5 p.m. in the Gail and Mike Yanney Conference Center on the ground floor of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. The gallery viewing and a reception will follow in the main dining room.
“Jun was selected as a featured artist at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center because his playful use of patterns and colors leaves a feeling of cheerfulness in the viewer,” said Colleen Heavican, curator of the Healing Arts Program. “Additionally, his work SEARCH is a creative fusion of art and healing. The illuminated tower brings positive energy, inspiration and hope to the patients, loved ones and professionals at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine.”
The Healing Arts Program at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center exists to create environments that support and comfort people through the diverse art opportunities and experiences. It is comprised of artistic elements to help reduce pain perception, anxiety, stress, loneliness and depression and to provide new insight and clarify feelings about a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Born in Nagoya, Japan in 1942, Kaneko came to the United States in 1963 and became drawn to sculptural ceramics. He has lived and worked in Omaha since 1986. He is known for experimenting with the technical aspects of the ceramic medium and his unique visual language of painterly stripes, dots and spirals and astonishing colors.
Kaneko’s artwork appears in numerous international and national solo and group exhibitions annually and is included in more than 70 museum collections, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The de Young Museum in San Francisco.
Kaneko holds honorary doctorates from the University of Nebraska, the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, the Royal College of Art in London, and the University of Pecs.
His sense of spatial organization has afforded him the opportunity to realize several public sculpture installations including the 82-foot tall SEARCH Tower located outside the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.
For more information, contact the Healing Arts Program.