John Berpel

John Berpel was taught how to sew by their grandmother, Helen della Malva, in 1991. John still isn’t nearly as skilled with a needle and thread as Helen was, but he thinks of her often while sewing.

Blankets John has made have been exhibited and slept with in Mexico at kurimanzuto (2021), Centro Cultural de la Diversidad (2019), and Biquini Wax (2016) and in California at the Sweeney Gallery (2021), and Human Resources (2018). Recently, John has also been making a lot of books, jigsaw puzzles, kaleidoscopes, and gloves.

Our Envisioned Futures (2021)

A bouquet of toothbrushes surrounded by a sudsy dreamland as butterflies flutter by and bodies emerge and submerge from the bubbles. This symbol of a shared living space surrounded by amorphous wet.