Jun Kaneko was born in Nagoya, Japan, but has been based predominantly in the United States since 1963. His work is appreciated equally in the mainstream contemporary art world and the so-called 'craft' tradition.
Since the 1970s, Kaneko has been well known for his ceramic work, which ranges from free-standing sculptures over two metres tall to smaller wall-based pieces. These works tend to combine the boldness of American ceramics with a Japanese sensitivity to the nuances of form and colour.
Clear, blue, yellow and red slabs 2001 was conceived by Kaneko as a work to be produced during an artist residency at the Bullseye Glass Company in Portland, United States.
Each slab is a stack of clear glass sheets fused together in a kiln. The colour slabs have a single sheet of coloured glass fused to the bottom of the stack. This combination of coloured and clear layers exploits the optical qualities of the material and produces a subtle colour saturation that shifts depending on the viewing angle.
