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Monumental Works
Category: Exhibitions • Free | Season: FORM
Lifetime Achievements in Sculpture, a Celebration of Sculptural Artistry
In a continuing partnership with the International Sculpture Center, KANEKO presents a collection of globally-recognized works by monumental sculptural artists. This exhibit strives to illuminate each artist’s creative process as well as the craft and perseverance needed to master their materials and convey meaning in their sculptural work.
Monumental Works is an extension of the ISC’s littleSCULPTURE Show and Art Sale that opened FORM in October 2021, alongside an exhibit of great works by 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Jun Kaneko. By featuring other ISC Lifetime Achievement Award winners, this new FORM exhibit enhances the historical impact and cultural significance of sculpture, and also allows for a continuation of this conversation in relation to the development of a new sculpture project in Omaha’s revitalized Gene Leahy Mall.
Page Photo: James Surls “Walking Flower Times the Power of Five ”, 2010, Steel, 14’5” x 14’5” x 5’5” Photographed outside James Surls Colorado studio by Robert Millman
Featured Artists for this Exhibit:
This exhibit will include assorted works by legendary artists: Fletcher Benton, Richard Hunt, Jun Kaneko, Phillip King, William King, Manuel Neri, Arnoldo Pomodoro, Ursula Von Rydingsvard, Kiki Smith, James Surls, William G. Tucker, and Bernar Venet.
ATTENTION: Member’s First-Look Event (January 14th) has been canceled: Out of an abundance of caution in light of the recent spike in COVID cases, we have made the difficult decision to cancel this event. The public opening of this exhibit remains on January 15th during normal gallery hours.
Community Impact in Omaha:
A plan is to place five large sculptures in the revitalized Gene Leahy Mall at The RiverFront. In a partnership between the Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority (MECA), KANEKO, and the International Sculpture Center, this plan will secure significant sculptures for the Gene Leahy Mall Sculpture Garden beginning in May 2022 for three years. During these three years, KANEKO will develop and curate complimentary exhibits for each of the five sculptures featured at The RiverFront. In addition, in coordination with KANEKO, MECA will plan activations around the five Gene Leahy Mall sculpture works.
We see this initial exhibit, Monumental Works, as connective tissue between KANEKO’s celebration of the ISC Lifetime Achievement Award in autumn of 2021, the development of this park project, and a more extensive commitment to bring monumental sculptural work of marked significance to the Omaha community.
COVID Contingency Plan: If we feel that there are significant health and safety concerns, we reserve the right to postpone (ideally) or cancel (unfortunately) any event.
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littleSCULPTURE Show & Art Sale
Category: Exhibitions • Free • Soirée | Season: FORM
For this year’s Soirée, KANEKO has partnered closely with the International Sculpture Center.
In addition to Jun Kaneko being featured in their publication, Sculpture Magazine, KANEKO will exhibit their annual littleSCULPTURE Show & Sale in our upstairs galleries as part of the event exhibition. This exhibit contains little sculptures made by artists from our community and around the world.
All little sculptures are for sale and benefit the International Sculpture Center. This show and sale will continue to be on view in our gallery spaces October 2nd through October 24th, 2021, in conjunction with the 2021 ISC Lifetime Achievement Award presentation to Jun Kaneko and the KANEKO Soirée celebration.
Please Note: We are doing everything we can to make you as safe as possible and recommend masks inside KANEKO.
Parking: KANEKO is located in three turn of the century warehouses in Omaha’s historic Old Market district. Street, meter, and service lot parking is available throughout the Old Market. Enter: Please enter through our east doors on 11th & Jones Streets. Accessibility: Our facilities are completely ADA accessible. As an organization that encourages the exploration of the creative process, we strive to make sure everyone feels safe and welcome in our space. If you have any accessibility needs, please reach out to us at least 48 hours in advance of this event at info@thekaneko.org
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OUTR 2021 Festival
Category: Exhibitions • Generator Series • Performances | Season:
Omaha Under the Radar Returns to KANEKO!
Omaha Under the Radar returns for its 8th annual festival of contemporary performance, featuring innovative time-based arts, open-form pieces for musicians and movement artists, and workshops on experimental music and sound art.
Featured composers at the 8th annual festival include Chari Glogovac-Smith, Veronica Anne Salinas, Frederick Gifford, and Stacey Barelos. Acclaimed for its history of producing experimental performance events in the region, OUTR has gathered a community of artists, creators, and audiences who are eager to try something new and experience performance in unique formats. This event will be a family-friendly and casual way to engage with contemporary performance.
Omaha Under the Radar Programs at KANEKO:
EVENT 1 | Friday, August 6th | 7 PM | Festival Pass Required
Performances by featured artist Veronica Anne Salinas and more.VIDEO INSTALLATION | Saturday, August 7th | 2-4 PM | FREE
Experience the stunning work of composer and video artist Bana Haffar, on view in KANEKO’s galleries.EVENT 4 | Saturday, August 7th | 7 PM | Festival Pass Required
The festival’s closing event will feature performances by Chari Glogovac-Smith-Smith, Dereck Higgins, Aaron Gum, and more.
About Omaha Under the Radar: Omaha Under the Radar is an annual experimental performance festival in the Midwest. We celebrate cultural innovators with performances throughout the city of Omaha. The festival emerged from a desire to support innovative performers and creators living and working in the Midwest and connect this community to other performance communities throughout the United States. Since the first festival, held in 2014, Omaha Under the Radar has presented over 200 artists from more than a dozen cities throughout the United States. We work to represent a multiplicity of genres, ideas, and identities through performances, talks, group discussions, and educational opportunities. Learn More ->
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SOIRÉE 2021
Category: Exhibitions • Soirée | Season: FORM
This year, KANEKO Soirée celebrates something very special.
Each year, Omaha looks forward to KANEKO’s Soirée, the celebration of a year of creative and inspirational programming and exhibition. Like all KANEKO programs, Soirée offers a great atmosphere, a fresh exhibition, and a chance to discover a new and exciting way to look at things. This year, Soirée celebrates something very special.
After a year of distance and challenges, we invite you to come together to honor resilience and connection, and to celebrate our co-founder, Jun Kaneko, receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center. This award ceremony will take place the night before Soirée, in Omaha, and represents the culmination of a lifetime of groundbreaking international artistry. In honor of this award, KANEKO is installing an exhibit of some of Jun’s largest ceramic pieces in our Bow Truss Gallery to feature at Soirée.
For this year’s Soirée, KANEKO has partnered closely with the International Sculpture Center and, in addition to Jun being featured in their publication, Sculpture Magazine, KANEKO will exhibit their annual littleSCULPTURE Show & Sale in our upstairs galleries as part of the event exhibition. Also featured will be our new education space, now dedicating a third of our galleries to generative and educational programming. For Soirée, this space will exhibit art and design by our 2021 Summer Camp participants, among other bright and inspired youth.
Please join us by purchasing your ticket while they are still available. As always, the evening will include food, drinks, and entertainment by some of Omaha’s most innovative and exciting artists (as well as KANEKO partners). You can support all the great programming and exhibitions KANEKO provides by purchasing a ticket today, or, find more information about how to become a KANEKO Soirée Sponsor. We’re excited to see you at this unforgettable event!
Honorary Chairs
Sue & David MorrisCo-Chairs
Marlina & Dusty Davidson
Emily & Craig Moody
Please note: Proof of vaccination will be required to enter this event. Digital copies will be accepted. We are doing everything we can to make you as safe as possible and recommend masks inside KANEKO.
COVID Contingency Plan: If we feel that there are significant health and safety concerns, we reserve the right to postpone (ideally) or cancel (unfortunately) any event. If we have to postpone or cancel, all ticket holders will be contacted as soon as possible and provided with a new date. We will be emailing participants with information closer to the date of the event.
Related Events
ISC Artful Adventure: Discover Nebraska
Join the ISC this October 20-23, 2021, for an art-filled weekend in Omaha and Lincoln, including an exclusive studio visit and dinner with Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Jun Kaneko; ticket(s) to Kaneko Soirée; art collection tours; curator-led museum tours; and more! LEARN MORE ⟶
Lifetime Achievement Award Exclusive Dinner
On Thursday, October 21st ISC will present the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award to Jun Kaneko at an exclusive dinner celebration. Limited tickets are available. LEARN MORE ⟶
Support KANEKO Soirée
We need to have record-breaking results to achieve our future goals and we ask you to join us in supporting KANEKO’s mission to serve the Omaha community through sponsorship or purchase of tickets to our annual fundraiser. SOIRÉE SPONSORSHIPS ⟶
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Juan de Dios Sánchez Artist Talk
Category: Artist Talk • Exhibitions • Free | Season: Community
KANEKO welcomes you to an Artist Talk with Juan Sanchez on Friday, April 30th. Three events will occur at 6, 7, and 8 pm. Reservations are offered for each 50-minute event with a maximum of 50 guests. Each event will begin with a 20-minute live presentation by the artist, diving into the exhibit and the evolution of Sanchez’s revolutionary Raku fired technique, followed by a Q&A session and a remaining half an hour to experience the exhibit. The entire KANEKO gallery space will be open for viewing the Community Exhibition.
About Show
This first American exhibit by the Mexican ceramicist Juan de Dios Sánchez Arce is rooted in imagery and stories that live “in the blood of all Mexicans.” and represents the evolution of a Raku fire technique that Sánchez and his team have pushed to the limits of what any other ceramic artist has done. This exhibit is about a lost lesson: the balance of nature and humanity in the universe, life and death, and how Sánchez believes this lesson is beginning to recover in the minds of his culture.
Sánchez began collaborating with Jun Kaneko over twelve years ago when he, after seeing Kaneko’s ceramics, asked how he managed to build such monumental works. Kaneko, in response, asked the very same question about Sánchez’s slip-cast and Raku fired ceramics. The processes of both these artists are difficult and have been independently pushed to the limits over and over. The combination of these mutual investigations led to revolutions in large-scale slip-cast Raku fired ceramics that had never before been achieved. Much of the result of this collaboration can be seen in this exhibit as well as in Kaneko’s ongoing work.
What to Expect When You Visit KANEKO
We have created a safe environment for this Artist Talk so that everyone attending can enjoy themselves. By reserving a space for this Artist Talk you accept the following:
- Because this artist talk will occur three times in three 50 minute time slots, we ask that you come no earlier than 5 minutes before the hour you reserve to avoid crowding.
- Masks are required inside the KANEKO.
- Guests will observe a 6-foot distance from each other in the KANEKO (if you are with a group of cohorts you may stay close together but please remain at a safe distance from other guests).
- Juan Sanchez’s Artist Talk will take place upstairs in our Gallery 5. Upon entering the building you will check-in and will be guided to the exhibit.
- As the hour-long experience ends, guests will be asked to make room for other reservations by leaving Gallery 5 and exploring the rest of the Community Exhibit.
About Juan Sánchez
Sánchez has lived and worked in Cuernavaca, Mexico for the last 15 years. He grew up in an environment of both art and medicine; his father was a doctor, but his life was immersed in art and Sánchez was drawing and painting at a very young age. As a young man, Sánchez practiced as a doctor of anesthesiology for 17 years, but changed professions to become a ceramist. His medical studies influenced the way he sees life, the way he behaves, and the way he feels compelled to help others. The discipline to be a good artist grew from the discipline he learned from the intense study of medicine.
By maintaining contact with ceramicists in Europe, Sánchez facilitated a side business, working with Mexican artisans and selling large quantities of high-end functional ceramic ware to distribution companies all over Europe. He studied Raku fired ceramics with his brother at a production studio in Healdsburg, CA before opening their ceramic studio in Mexico. Although he had many other projects and professions at the time, he ultimately took over the studio. He continued to study ceramics and quickly began pushing the normal expectations of scale with both slip-cast and Raku fired works.
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Tessellation Project
Category: Exhibitions • Free | Season: Community
Communal artistic expressions during this time of physical seclusion and social disruption.
This Community exhibit is an evolving public art project, Tessellation, created by hundreds of individual pieces of art, each individually submitted by members of our local community and people across the United States and around the world.
The Tessellation Project began in March 2020 as a way for KANEKO to engage individuals and communities sheltering in place in response to COVID-19. To guarantee safety, people were asked to submit their art digitally, and in a few months over a thousand digital and video images were submitted, carrying with them, unique stories of managing lives in a time of seclusion. Since then some pieces have been shipped or submitted in person, adding a new dimension to this constantly changing exhibit.
This project is a work in progress beginning with the curation of the first phase, Isolation. The second phase, Ritual, was a call for multi-media submissions of rituals that people created or appreciated in a new way during their time at home. Over time the newer phases will be added and the overall exhibit will become something, say something, reflect something different.
Submit Work to The Tessellation Project
The current phase of the Tessellation Project is Ritual. Our world is moving through dramatic and difficult times. After strict isolation, the world began opening up, adding more ambiguity and choice to how we move. More recently, we are witnessing and reacting to tragedy, outrage, and the need for a movement to correct years of oppression and racism. There is friction and pain and work to be done. We wish to respond to the variety and complexity of these new movements by adding new questions and mediums to the next phase of The Tessellation Project.
Submit & Learn More
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Juan de Dios Sánchez
Category: Exhibitions • Free | Season: Community
“In The Blood of all Mexicans”
This first American exhibit by the Mexican ceramicist Juan de Dios Sánchez Arce is rooted in imagery and stories that live “in the blood of all Mexicans.” This collection represents the evolution of a Raku fire technique that Sánchez and his team have pushed to the limits of what any other ceramic artist has done. This exhibit is about a lost lesson: about the balance of nature and humanity in the universe, life and death, and how Sánchez believes this lesson is beginning to recover in the minds of his culture.
Sánchez began collaborating with Jun Kaneko over twelve years ago when he, after seeing Kaneko’s work, asked how he managed to build such monumental works. Kaneko, in response, asked the very same question about Sánchez’s slip-cast and Raku fired work. The processes of both these artists are difficult and have been independently pushed to the limits over and over. The combination of these mutual investigations led to revolutions in large-scale slip-cast Raku fired ceramics that had never before been achieved. Much of the result of this collaboration can be seen in this exhibit as well as in Kaneko’s ongoing work.
About Juan Sánchez
Sánchez has lived and worked in Cuernavaca, Mexico for the last 15 years. He grew up in an environment of both art and medicine; his father was a doctor, but his life was immersed in art and Sánchez was drawing and painting at a very young age. As a young man, Sánchez practiced as a doctor of anesthesiology for 17 years but changed professions to become a ceramist. His medical studies influenced the way he sees life, the way he behaves, and the way he feels compelled to help others. The discipline to be a good artist grew from the discipline he learned from the intense study of medicine.
By maintaining contact with ceramicists in Europe, Sánchez facilitated a side business, working with Mexican artisans and selling large quantities of high-end functional ceramic ware to distribution companies all over Europe. He studied Raku fired ceramics with his brother at a production studio in Healdsburg, CA before opening their ceramic studio in Mexico. Although he had many other projects and professions at the time, he ultimately took over the studio. He continued to study ceramics and quickly began pushing the normal expectations of scale with both slip-cast and Raku fired works.
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Therman Statom
Category: Education • Exhibitions • Free | Season: Community
Art is a Tool for Empowerment and Education
Like all exhibits in the Community Exhibition, this work will respond and evolve through time. The entrance to Statom’s exhibit is a giant glass wall that will remain at KANEKO semi-permanently to designate our newly expanded education space, but even that massive structure will change; the colors, found objects, and stories within will be moved, replaced or added.
Therman Statom is a pioneer in the contemporary glass art movement, a longtime friend of Ree and Jun Kaneko, a KANEKO board member, and a social activist. Much of the latter half of his career has been focused on the importance of educational programming within the arts. Statom has taken a deep interest in employing workshops as a catalyst for social change and, in effect, positively impacting a community. This exhibit displays a variety of his new and historical work, but the greater story is this catalyst as a dynamic and powerful movement for social justice.
“I feel that art is a tool for empowerment and education. It’s also a viable tool to investigate positive change and engage a culture through the use of exploration.” – Therman Statom
About Therman Statom
Therman Statom – sculptor, glass artist, and painter – is most notably known as a pioneer of the contemporary glass movement for his life-size glass ladders, chairs, tables, constructed box-like paintings, and small scale houses; all created through the technique of gluing glass plates together. Sandblasted surfaces become a canvas for spontaneous vibrant colors and line work, which take nuances from Abstract Expressionism and concepts of Minimalism, while simultaneously incorporating a twist by using blown-glass elements and found objects.
Born in Winter Haven, Florida in 1953, Statom spent his adolescence growing up in Washington, D.C. His interest in the arts grew from a fondness of painting and he began to investigate ceramics at RISD. However, after an experimental glass blowing session with Dale Chihuly, he was soon hooked on the spontaneity of glass blowing and its limitless possibilities. Statom went on to pursue studies at Pilchuck Glass School during its inaugural year, completing a BFA in 1974 from RISD, and later studied at the Pratt Institute of Art & Design.
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Pamela Conyers-Hinson
Category: Exhibitions • Free | Season: Community
Infused with questions, vulnerability, and disruption.
Pamela Conyers-Hinson moves through the world investigating and experimenting. Often this work is done through the use of discarded and forgotten materials, the shared stories of women of color, or the magnification of a subject’s journey. Nothing embodies this more than her mask work: the physical and intellectual relationship developed between artist and subject through touch and conversation as the material is applied, and the manifestation of a face whose ancestral facial features are embellished and elevated by the artist through hand-painted design.
Most of the work in this exhibit was completed between 2018 and 2020 and some pieces were made at KANEKO; all are infused with questions, vulnerability, and disruption. Conyers-Hinson’s use of multiple mediums: wood, bronze, marble, alabaster, clay, and textiles, represents the diversity of her subject matter and the intimate and tactile ways she engages with her audience and her community.
About Pamela Conyers-Hinson
Conyers-Hinson holds a Masters of Arts in Teaching and Organizational Leadership and a BA in Studio Art. She is a classically trained sculptor using the lost wax method for bronze casting and traditional methods for stone carving and her interest in sustainability within the arts is evident by her use of experimental natural mediums. She received the Council of American Art Society Inc. Award for Excellence in Representational Sculpture and was a 2018 Fellow at The Union for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE. She has taught art all over Nebraska: in rural communities with exhibitions from the Sheldon Museum of Art, for Joslyn Art Museum, and in after school programs focused on underserved populations. Conyers-Hinson has exhibited artwork in New York, Illinois, and Virginia, is a member of the National Association of Women Artists (New York Chapter), and recently published a book of artwork focusing on capturing ancestral facial features titled “Expressions of Black Heritage Through 50 Faces.”
Artist Statement
What I am creating is called a “Life Mask” simply because my models are alive. The process of mold making can be a scary journey for some. For others, it’s the equivalent of getting a deep facial. One thing I have learned during this process is that it rests on a foundation of trust and intimacy. I have to quickly gain the trust of my models. I have to explain my process in a way that my models trust me enough to step out of their comfort zone and relax. Intimacy is obtained not only through tacticity but also through the whispered sharing of stories. These are stories that one would not normally share with someone that falls under the umbrella of “stranger.” But by giving me permission to enter your personal space, we have become part of each other’s journey. I am touching your face while applying a thin layer of Vaseline. I feel the history of teenage acne, the physical and sometimes emotional scars of past traumas. This gives me your approval and for whatever reason, it is ok for me to be in your space.
I always meet with the models sometimes days before or hours before explaining my process step by step. I want to make sure that the model is as comfortable as possible. The model will lay down on a table covered with pillows and there is always music playing in the background. The music will give the model something to focus on during the mold making process. It is important that the model knows that even if it appears like they do not have control over the process they do. They can stop me at any point. I discuss signals to determine where the model is emotional during the mold making process. I explain the purpose of the application of Vaseline (release agent) and how the pieces of straws will extend the length of the nasal passageway. The pre-cut template out of foam board will fit around the model’s face. Any gaps around the face will be sealed with duct tape. This will prevent the plaster from flowing down the sides of the face into the hair. Throughout the process, I am talking to the model. I am checking for non-verbal cues; like a change in breathing patterns. This could be an indicator that the model might be getting anxious.
With straws in hand, the model is guided to the table and lays down. I make sure that all of the pillows are in place to ensure the model’s comfort. Once the application of the release agent is complete, I mix the water and molding plaster. With the template and tape in place, I check the model for comfort once again. I begin applying the now thickened plaster. During the application, I’m explaining that the plaster will go on feeling cold. I always start the application process around the edges of the face and work my way inward. I always announce the next application location. Normally, it is at this point that I tell the model to insert the straw pieces into their nostrils. I explain again that once the plaster is over their eyes, light is no longer visible. The last place I apply plaster is the area between the upper lip and between the nostrils. At this point, the signal is thumbs up or thumbs down. I am still talking to my model and giving an updated timeframe for the removal of the mold. I explain to the model that the plaster will begin to warm up as it is setting. I tap the mold to determine if it is ready for removal. Once the mold is ready, I inform the model. I begin by removing the straws from the model’s nostrils and then I pop off the mold. I instruct the model that the eyes must remain closed until I clean the area around the eyes. The next level of trust and intimacy begins as I begin the process of hand washing the model’s face. Once the model’s face is clean, the model can view the plaster mold.
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Watie White
Category: Education • Exhibitions • Free | Season: Community
Some are bold, some are funny. All are human.
Watie White’s new exhibit consists of two separate bodies of work, each with individual and vital ties to this community and to KANEKO. Both projects are rooted in the process of woodcut printmaking, a reductive process that begins with a flat piece of wood into which the white of an image is carved. White’s newest project is the presentation of 4 of the largest woodcut panels he has ever created, all containing moments the artist himself experienced and which hold secrets woven in.
Also presented are a series of large prints from 100 People, a public art project which White began in January of 2017. This project features friends and collaborators of White’s who advocate for others, who bring joy with their practices and whose lives are intertwined with the ethics and generosity they display to their communities and the world.
About Watie White
Born in Palo Alto, CA, Watie White was raised in a transplanted family of cultural anthropologists in very rural Southern Illinois. Watie learned early the power of the stories we tell and the long term effect of being heard. The diverse work produced by his studio is known for being site-specific and highly collaborative, deeply skilled, and rife with hidden absurdity.
Watie received degrees from Carleton College (BA 1993), School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA 2001), and American University (MFA 2003), has attended multiple International residencies and sustained an obsessive studio practice since 1996.
In Omaha, Nebraska since 2006, his work has embraced studio-based painting and printmaking as well as a socially engaged public art practice incorporating local communities, nonprofits, and multiple school districts. Learn more about Watie White