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Creator
Peter ENGEL
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OAKLAND, CA
United States
About Peter
The origami designs of Peter Engel are known to paperfolding enthusiasts worldwide. The creator of dozens of original models over five 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.
Engel has exhibited his origami artwork and sculpture at the Asian Art Museum and the de Young Museum 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. His mobile of a sampling from his 10,000 origami birds project is a permanent installation at the headquarters of a major San Francisco-based tech company.
Engel’s first book, Folding the Universe: Origami from Angelfish to Zen, described by Robert Lang as “iconic,” was, along with Jun Maekawa Viva Origami!, the first publication to include complex crease patterns. It was followed nearly twenty years later by 10-Fold Origami, which contains simpler models including the popular Hatching Chick. Engel’s third book, Origami Odyssey: A Journey to the Edge of Paperfolding, returned to the challenging artistic and intellectual territory charted by Folding the Universe. Origami Odyssey has been acclaimed by artists, scientists, and scholars including Melissa Rinne, Associate Curator of Japanese Art at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum; Niles Eldredge of the Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History in New York City; and Tom Rockwell, Director of Exhibits at the San Francisco 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 specializing in homeless shelters, affordable housing, sustainable schools, museum exhibits, and international development. He teaches sustainable architecture at Academy of Art University in San Francisco and lectures widely on his origami and architectural design ideas, including recent talks for the American Institute of Architects in 2023 and the Ecocity World Summit in 2022.
Engel has exhibited his origami artwork and sculpture at the Asian Art Museum and the de Young Museum 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. His mobile of a sampling from his 10,000 origami birds project is a permanent installation at the headquarters of a major San Francisco-based tech company.
Engel’s first book, Folding the Universe: Origami from Angelfish to Zen, described by Robert Lang as “iconic,” was, along with Jun Maekawa Viva Origami!, the first publication to include complex crease patterns. It was followed nearly twenty years later by 10-Fold Origami, which contains simpler models including the popular Hatching Chick. Engel’s third book, Origami Odyssey: A Journey to the Edge of Paperfolding, returned to the challenging artistic and intellectual territory charted by Folding the Universe. Origami Odyssey has been acclaimed by artists, scientists, and scholars including Melissa Rinne, Associate Curator of Japanese Art at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum; Niles Eldredge of the Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History in New York City; and Tom Rockwell, Director of Exhibits at the San Francisco 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 specializing in homeless shelters, affordable housing, sustainable schools, museum exhibits, and international development. He teaches sustainable architecture at Academy of Art University in San Francisco and lectures widely on his origami and architectural design ideas, including recent talks for the American Institute of Architects in 2023 and the Ecocity World Summit in 2022.
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