Many people don’t realize there is more to the Old Market than restaurants and sports bars.

What appears to be a vacant brick building is actually home to one of the largest personally-owned kilns in North America. World famous artist, Jun Kaneko of Nagoya, Japan, resides in downtown Omaha with his wife Ree. Jun Kaneko is most known for his large scale and widely collected ceramics, while Ree is recognized for starting the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha.

“The Bemis has established a great reputation and it provides a great opportunity for artists. One of the best things I did was buy a building and give it a home. We are strenuous about who we help, but keeps quality high so it will stay exciting and fresh,” Ree said.

The Bemis Center began as an alternative work site around 1971. It provided a studio space as well as a stipend for the artists. Many of the artists who came to Omaha to work were delighted by finding reasonable real-estate and empty warehouses in the downtown area.

“There were about 100 artists in the beginning and they all hung around Omaha. We worked together and even cooked together in those first three summers,” Ree said.

The Bemis is currently one of the top artist-in-residency programs in the country. Although Ree no longer runs the Bemis, she is happy to see what it has accomplished and will continue to accomplish, not only for the art community in Omaha but for the city as a whole.

“It can continue to change the neighborhood with its ever-changing pallet of artists,” Ree said.

What she has accomplished for the Bemis, she now does for her husband Jun, by helping him maintain and run a successful family business based solely around his art.

Jun’s work is no small feat, with ceramic pieces ranging in height from two feet to 13 feet and weighing anywhere from 80 pounds to 5,500 pounds. The shapes of Kaneko’s ceramic pieces appear to be very simplistic as most are either triangles or ovals. In order to fabricate his work, he must possess extreme technical skill as well as patience and control.

“Jun has always been challenged by figuring out how to make work larger,” Ree said. “It seems like a simple thing when you see all the large work, but I remember when a lot of pieces would come out cracked. He becomes very close with the material he works with. He has been doing this for 40 years, you can’t help but get better. It’s like the Olympics. . . it looks easy to be a speed skater.”

Jun works with many mediums other than ceramics, including large drawings, paintings, photography, bronze casting, fused glass work and most recently the costume and set design for the Fidelio opera. He is represented in 13 galleries across the country and his work is all over Omaha.

Jun has pieces at the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Criss Library, the Hilton downtown, the Holland Performing Arts Center and the Joslyn.

Kaneko’s work is also currently being installed at the Mid America Center in Council Bluffs.

For more information about Jun Kaneko visit www.junkaneko.com.