Metalsmithing Alumnus Ryan Seng Named Art Jewelry Forum’s 2026 Outstanding Graduate
Model is wearing two necklaces by Ryan Seng.
Noir Necklace, 2025. Wood Copper, stainless steel, 9″ x 9″
Limoges Porcelain Necklace 1, 2025. Porcelain, satin ribbon, 9″ x 72″
Photo by Eric Perry.
Cranbrook Academy of Art is proud to celebrate recent graduate Ryan Seng (MFA Metalsmithing 2026), who has been named Cranbrook’s 2026 Outstanding Graduate by Art Jewelry Forum (AJF) — featured in the publication’s annual photo essay, Meet the Outstanding Students of 2026, published July 27.
Each year, faculty at AJF member schools select one outstanding graduate from their current class to be featured in AJF’s annual showcase, one of the field’s most recognized platforms for emerging voices in contemporary jewelry and metalsmithing. Seng was selected from Cranbrook’s 2026 graduating class, and his work is presented alongside students from leading jewelry programs worldwide.
Seng is a Detroit-based artist who came to Cranbrook after working as a menswear designer and studying at Parsons School of Design. His MFA body of work, the Mementos series, reflects three years of material discovery and exploration, tracing the accumulation of experiences and influences gathered during his time at the Academy. The series investigates how utilitarian objects from everyday life, brushes, ribbons, braids, function as ritualistic and intimate objects, carriers of emotional memory and bodily experience. “My closet mirrors my identity,” Seng has said. “As a collection of memories, each garment carries the emotional residue from different life events.” For Seng, jewelry carries still more: “I consciously choose to adorn my body with precious objects that can reflect and communicate my desires, values, and life experiences.”
Working with an uncommonly wide range of materials including wood, copper, stainless steel, porcelain, obsidian, lambskin, horsehair, rubber, ebony, goat hair, satin ribbon, grosgrain, Seng approaches each piece as a carefully crafted ensemble in which unexpected material combinations create visual tension and sensuality. The jewelry, he has said, “tempts the viewer, eliciting a desire to touch and feel it against their skin. Through unexpected combinations of materials such as horsehair, rubber, obsidian, and ebony, a seduction can begin.”
Among the works highlighted in the AJF photo essay are Noir Necklace and Limoges Porcelain Necklace 1 (2025); Idar Obsidian Necklace (2026); Encased Bubble Choker (2026); Noir Choker (2025); Ebony Choker (2025); and Braided Necklace (2026). Works from Seng’s Mementos series were also selected as the 2026 Cranbrook Art Museum Graduate Degree Purchase, a distinction that places his work in the museum’s permanent collection.
Past AJF Outstanding Graduates include Ziqi Yuan (MFA Metalsmithing 2025), Eighteen Yuan (MFA Metalsmithing 2023), and Zahra Almajidi (MFA Metalsmithing 2021).
Learn more:
Meet the Outstanding Students of 2025-2026 – Art Jewelry Forum
