At the Arts & Crafts Cooperative Inc. gallery this past Saturday, 10-year-old origami artist Max Berg explained the process of creating his on-display piece “Gentle Dragon.” Berg’s collection is made up of seven shrinking dragon figures — the smallest of which was folded from a 4 cm piece of Kami paper. He was the youngest person at the artist talk for “Art in the Fold” by more than a decade; his work is a starting point for understanding the challenges and patience of folding itself. The tiniest dragon stands still legible behind a line of much taller creatures; audiences can imagine the finger cramps.
ACCI Gallery’s current exhibit “Art in the Fold” isn’t only interested in displaying the physical challenges of the act of folding. It wishes to explore what the process materially means to each artist. For curator Goran Konjevod, the prompt means a spin on his usual work: spectacularly folded paper in the shape of a vessel, preserved in encaustic wax. “Landscape 2026-1” is displayed on the wall in a simple square shape with Konjevod’s familiar geometric, textured folds.
A triptych by Ekaterina Pavlovic is stunning beyond possible comprehension of its artistic process. Incredibly swirled and divoted, perfect patterns are displayed in mesmerizing and glowing indigo. A silver sheen from the three works, whose materials are only listed as “paper, acrylic” makes this incredible collection gleam like otherworldly metal. David Honda, too, creates a mesmerizing collection of netted, metallic orbs with cardstock and mixed media. A creative starting point is unimaginable to anyone who witnesses the intricacy of these pieces.
UC Berkeley art practice student Jasper Wang renders a shadowy, stretching blend of black and white body parts, patterns and fabrics in “They Knew Something I Refused to Believe.” Strangeness is woven with symbols of history; bodily confusion grasps onto strange bars. Physical folding — within human tangibility — is drawn in mesmerizing pen strokes. Opposite this display wall, Chris Conrad depicts the “living memory” of paper creases with “Imposter Syndrome,” a scene sculpted from a single sheet of paper. This sheet has skillfully been crumpled into a human figure at a desk: with head in hands, a T-shirt on and left leg outstretched. This self doubting figure ought to look up and see their deserved place in such good artistic company.
“Old Soul” makes for an incredible material examination: a human face is rendered out of quilled paper and beads. Placed in the center of thin, rolled strips of paper, gold and silver dots create pupils and ornament an upward-staring face. Curling orange and cream hair blooms from the scalp of this stacked collection of paper strips. Kathy Canfield Shepard works within the inherently mesmerizing art of paper quilling — but makes its representational qualities ever-more magnificent.
Gabriella O’Connor displays a grid of origami lilies, working from one slitted sheet of paper and taking inspiration from Renzuru, a style of origami that links paper cranes carved from the same sheet. Individual lilies are pinned down with a decorative pearly bead inside each flower — repetition and connection become both wholly impressive craft and one peaceful, detailed display.
Folding brings dimension. For metal artist Ema Tanigaki, four copper sculptures which once started as simple sheets were, indeed, “folded” to get to their current state — but not with the same ease as Kami paper. Boasting dimensionality, curves and empty space, these pieces “perform a silent dance” and possess confidence in tandem. Their hand-defeating sturdiness and physics-defying cylindricality obscure a labor-intensive process — but never erase it.
The simple awe of folded artwork is the physical effort that is required to go into it. Paintbrushes cannot help in rendering blushed cheeks; a camera lens is unavailable to zoom in. Just as human hands are needed to craft folds, so are human eyes needed to appreciate them.
Konjevod, a master of the fold himself, has procured an exhibition whose exceptional talent is only visible from within ACCI Gallery’s walls.
“Art in the Fold” will be up until March 22.