"Materialistic" ran through April 28, 2007 and featured work by Sarah Kate Burgess, Tom Carbone and Annica Cuppetelli. "The artists in this exhibit question the role of the material in body adornment items, as well as the function of the item itself," said curator, Narine Kchikian. "Approaching their materials in a non-functional way, they come up with the visual solutions, which take body adornment to the unusual directions."

Sarah Kate Burgess received her MFA degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work has been featured in "Metalsmith" magazine and has been included in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally. Burgess consistently questions the function of jewelry and jeweler through her unique use of material and technique. Her jewelry work explores the limits of wearability, the function of jewelry and our limitless urge to decorate.

Tom Carbone is a furniture designer who received his BFA from the College for Creative Studies. His many years in industry have been spent in the areas of prototyping, advanced engineering and product development. His recent body of work includes the line of sculptural shoes that he created with the idea to transform the foot into an icon of itself.

A fifth generation seamstress, Annica Cuppetelli is continuing the tradition of integrating fabric, form and fashion. She received her BFA from College of Creative Studies and is a current candidate for MFA at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She has been working in the industry and has developed a line of women's clothing called "dress". Cuppetelli is using the process of creating a repetitive accumulation of material to express the absence or presence of the body and its surrounding space.