The Museum of Arts and Design / Chris Schanck: Off World

During the past decade, Chris Schanck has emerged as a leading figure in the design world for his otherworldly fusion of sculpture and furniture. Skirting the line between refinement and camp, the strange, unfamiliar forms of Schanck’s chairs, sofas, lighting, mirrors, and more suggest coral reefs, extraterrestrial worlds, and artifacts from ancient civilizations, to name just a few of the designer’s inspirations. Each piece is meticulously handcrafted in Schanck’s Detroit-based studio, a community of artists, students, and Bangladeshi craftspeople who all make key contributions to the studio’s collective practice. Deftly melding innovative material experiments with an expressive yet rigorous refinement of form, Schanck’s elaborately carved, colorfully hued, and lustrous objects are contemporary talismans of stories from the past, present, and future.

Learn more at madmuseum.org.