Four Cranbrook Alumni Featured in Gallery SSS Inaugural Exhibition Homecoming
Exhibition view of “Homecoming” at Gallery SSS. Features works by Kayla Powers (far right) and John Torreano (second from right). Courtesy of Gallery SSS. Photo by Dean Van Dis.
Cranbrook alumni Chris Schanck (MFA 3D Design 2011), Jay Sae Jung Oh (MFA 3D Design 2011), Kayla Powers (MFA Fiber 2023), and John Torreano (BFA Painting 1963) are among 14 artists in Homecoming, the inaugural exhibition at Gallery SSS in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The show runs through October 16, 2026. Galerie named it one of October’s standout collectible design exhibitions.
Designer Sarah Sherman Samuel opened Gallery SSS at 1048 Wealthy Street SE on September 10, after returning to Michigan from 15 years in Los Angeles. Homecoming brings together artists whose stories began in Michigan or the greater Midwest. Their work spans glass, sand casting, painting, fiber, ceramics, leather, wood, aluminum, and brass.
Exhibition view of “Homecoming” at Gallery SSS. Features Alufoil chair by Chris Schanck (center). Courtesy of Gallery SSS. Photo by Dean Van Dis.
Schanck contributes a curvaceous blue velvet chair cradled by a lattice of aluminum and steel, according to Galerie. He is best known for his Alufoil series, in which sculpted industrial materials are covered in aluminum foil and sealed in resin. Schanck has lived in Detroit since 2011 and works with Friedman Benda. The Museum of Arts and Design in New York has presented a major exhibition of his furniture, Off-World.
Exhibition view of “Homecoming” at Gallery SSS. Features work by Jay Sae Jung Oh (left, on pedestal). Courtesy of Gallery SSS. Photo by Dean Van Dis.
Oh, who is based in Seattle, is known for her Savage series, now called Salvage. She wraps discarded household objects in jute or leather, turning plastic castoffs into sculptural furniture that addresses abundance and obsolescence. Cranbrook Art Museum acquired Savage Chair (2011) through its Graduate Degree Exhibition Purchase Award. Her work is also in the collections of SFMOMA, the Cooper Hewitt, M+, LACMA, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. Her first solo show, Salvage 2.0: Domestic Landscape, opened at Salon 94 Design in New York in 2024.
Powers makes ecologically focused textile art by foraging, dyeing, weaving, and stitching with plants she gathers and grows. She has had solo exhibitions at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne, Stetson University’s Gillespie Museum, Simone DeSousa Gallery in Detroit, and Saugatuck Center for the Arts. Cranbrook gave her its President’s Award for Sustainability in 2023. In 2025, she was International Artist in Residence and Hancock Fellow at the Australian Tapestry Workshop and received a Puffin Foundation Environmental Artistic Activism Grant.
Torreano is best known for paintings, sculptures, and prints that incorporate faceted gems. He uses them to create what he calls “movement-oriented perception,” where the viewer’s position shapes the experience of the work. Born in Flint, Michigan, he has lived and worked in New York for more than 40 years. His work has been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Nancy Graves Foundation. Sherman Samuel chose his piece for Homecoming from his studio archive. At 85, he is still painting.
Learn more:
9 Collectible Design Shows to See in October – Galerie
From the Gallery – SSS Edit (Curator’s Substack – Requires Paid Access)
