With two hundred pieces in eighty-five locations, public art is an important part of San Jose’s identity. If you’ve hung out downtown just out front of the San Jose Rep Theater’s large blue, modern building (Paseo de San Antonio), then you probably recognize these sculptures.
Like 1980s-style oblong Easter eggs, they stand boldly among the park benches, lamp posts and walkways.
Made of ceramic and powder-coated steel, the 1994 work is called ‘Convergence’ and is by artist Jun Kaneko.
Born in 1942, Kaneko is a Japanese artist now living in Omaha. His work is included in more than forty museum collections including the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Museum of Nebraska Art, Scripps College, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
I could tell you more about why or how ‘Convergence’ stands where it is today–who commissioned it?–but the information is apparently nowhere to be found, at least not online. Perhaps someone out there knows the story?
