Peter ENGEL

For the 2012 Spring Auction, Pete ENGEL has donated his piece “Ganesh on His Throne“.  Auction date: 7 May 2012.

For the 2011 Autumn Auction, Peter Engel has donated a Great Horned Owl.  Auction date: 30 October 2011

Artist’s website: http://www.engelarchitecture.com

Artist Bio/Statement: The origami designs of Peter Engel are known to paperfolders worldwide. The creator of dozens of original models over three decades, Engel draws his subject matter from the worlds of nature, mythology, and play. Inspired by the minimalist Japanese arts of calligraphy, brush painting, and Zen garden design, he aims to capture the essence of his subjects in compositions that are evocative yet abstract. He has exhibited his origami artwork and sculpture at the Asian Art Museum, the de Young Museum, and Gensler Gallery in San Francisco, the Bolinas Museum and Palo Alto Research Center in the San Francisco Bay Area, Gettysburg College Art Gallery in Pennsylvania, the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and Seian University of Art and Design in Otsu, Japan.

Engel’s first book, Folding the Universe: Origami from Angelfish to Zen, described by Robert Lang as “iconic,” was followed nearly twenty years later by 10-Fold Origami, which contains simpler models including the popular Hatching Chick. Engel’s just-published third book, Origami Odyssey: A Journey to the Edge of Paperfolding, returns to the challenging artistic and intellectual territory charted by Folding the Universe. Origami Odyssey has been acclaimed by artists, scientists, and scholars including Robert Lang; Melissa Rinne, Associate Curator of Japanese Art at the Asian Art Museum; Niles Eldredge of the Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History; and Tom Rockwell, Director of Exhibits at the Exploratorium.

A graduate of Harvard and Columbia Universities, Engel is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Asian Cultural Council, and the Graham Foundation. By profession, he is a LEED-accredited architect with a practice in Berkeley, California specializing in sustainable schools, museum exhibits, affordable housing, and international development.