Bronze

“My interest is in the creative spark,” says Jun Kaneko. “That’s the idea, the energy, and each idea has the perfect match of material to work with. It can’t always be clay or paint. I’m open to finding the medium to fit the idea.” The spark that lead Jun Kaneko into bronze was a desire to efficiently create forms in multiples, which would be more conducive to interactions between objective and pictorial space. Thus, in 2002, at the encouragement of his friend and mentor Peter Voulkos, Kaneko employed the Artworks Foundry in Berkeley, California, to create the first pair of Heads to be cast in bronze. 

Voulkos himself used the foundry to cast his iconic “stack” sculptures in bronze. Founded in 1976, the Artworks Foundry is a leading fabricator for the production of bronze sculptures, reliefs, and monuments. Ever attuned to the nuances of his materials, for his first pair of bronze Heads Kaneko embraced the metal’s innate reactivity with oxygen, moisture, heat, and chemicals to create a range of colors and patterns on the surface of the sculptures. Kaneko has utilized the Artworks Foundry several times since 2002, as well as the Walla Walla Factory in Washington state, to create a range of bronze pieces that today are represented in private collections and public art projects all over the world.