John Kapel – Born June 17, 1922, Cleveland, OH
A leader of the modern California crafts movement, John Kapel effortlessly blended studio furniture making with industrial design. After earning a bachelor’s degree at the Ohio Wesleyan University (1947), he trained for two years in Prague, then-capital of Czechoslovakia, and returned to the U.S. to earn an MFA in industrial design at Cranbrook (1950). Kapel joined the George Nelson Design Office in New York in 1952, but inspired by the work of furniture designer and woodworker Sam Maloof, he moved to California two years later with his wife, sculptor Priscilla Kapel. The couple built a house in Woodside, thirty-five miles south of San Francisco, which included a woodworking and cabinetmaking studio. Kapel began to produce prototypes for local furniture manufacturers while taking studio commissions for handmade chairs, cabinets, and tables, primarily of wood but with other materials as well, such as Formica, cane and leather. He worked for more than twenty years for the firm Glenn of California and with the Japanese company Kosuda Furniture, which manufactured Kapel’s work internationally. Kapel also created custom furniture, cabinets, doors, and wall pieces for private clients, often in collaboration with his wife, and participated to numerous exhibitions in California.