About

Siobhan van Winkel is an amputee cyborg whose practice merges sculpture, wearable forms, and sensory environments through sewing, layering, and hybrid materials. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was awarded the John Quincy Fellowship and an exchange scholarship to California College of the Arts, and later earned her MFA from CCA. After graduating, her work was auctioned internationally in three cities through ArtLink Sotheby’s Young Art Auction.

She later founded Siobhan van Winkel FunKtional Art, a woman-owned, mama-powered storefront on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, California. For nine years, she exhibited work by local artists, created one-of-a-kind pieces in her studio, raised her daughter Hazel, and built a loyal community around handmade, organic, and fair trade goods. The store was featured in Oakland Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle, won Best of the Bay, and was a finalist for the Innovator Award at the Oakland Indies.

Her work has appeared in juried shows, festivals, and galleries in California and Chicago, including the American Craft Council Show at Fort Mason, Elsewhere Gallery, and the Live Oak Art Festival. As a multidisciplinary teaching artist, she has taught courses in textiles, sculpture, intricate embellishment, found object jewelry, instrument and spaceship building. She currently works full-time in her studio creating wearable art, sculptural forms, and large-scale sensory works, including collaborative performances, artist-led workshops, and mobile sculptures that invite embodied interaction.