COLLECTIONS: Steel Work of Mild Hands

Steel Work of Mild Hands brings together recent works by Alberte Tranberg and Adam Shirley, two artists whose practices engage deeply with metal as a site of labor, time, and material decision-making. Shown within the context of SNAG (Society of North American Goldsmiths) Conference in Detroit and hosted by Wasserman Projects, the exhibition connects individual studio practices to broader conversations about making, effort, and value in contemporary metal and jewelry. Rather than approaching metal as a neutral medium, both artists foreground labor as an active and visible component of the work. Processes such as cutting, bending, joining, and repeating are not hidden but allowed to remain present, shaping both form and meaning. In this sense, labor is not only a means to an end, but a way of thinking through material.

Presented together, the works create a dialogue around different approaches to metalwork—ranging from precision and control to repetition, accumulation, and wear. The exhibition proposes labor as a shared ground, while allowing distinct positions to emerge through material choices, scale, and process.

Steel Work of Mild Hands is on view from May 16 – June 13, 2026

About Adam Shirley

Adam Shirley’s works arise from an investigation into the relationships between two and three dimensional objects, material and scale. Shirley explores form and volume in model-sized flat pieces that leave the interpretation of scale and function open to the viewer.

Working primarily with steel, a material typically associated with utility and function, Shirley creates objects that exist in a state “somewhere between a thought or idea and the process of transformation into physical form.” The results are works that engage the viewer into exploring the potentials of each object or form, not so much to arrive at a a definition of what they are, but simply to enjoy the journey of envisioning what they could be.

Adam Shirley received his BFA in 1993 from the College for Creative Studies (CCS), in Detroit, Michigan, and a Master of Fine Arts in Metalsmithing Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 2010. Shirley has recently received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award.

About Alberte Tranberg

Alberte Tranberg (b. 1990, Copenhagen) is an artist and metal fabricator who earned her MFA in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art, in 2018. She is a 2016 Fulbright recipient and was a Penland Winter resident 2025.

Tranberg engages the performative nature of interior objects through subtle architectural interventions. Her approach to making is a responsive dialogue between material and tool, whilst shaping gestures of familiar forms to emotive narratives. 

She has exhibited at Devening Projects (Chicago, IL), Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art (Buffalo, NY), Ornamentum Gallery (Hudson, NY), Materia Gallery (Detroit, MI), BULK Space (Detroit, MI), and Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Denmark), and has designed an award-winning series of handles for Reform Kitchens. Her work has been presented at the 5th edition of the Venice Design Biennial and featured in Special Exhibitions at Season Contemporary Fair (Detroit, 2025).  In collaboration with Iris Eichenberg as BERG+BERG, Tranberg has presented work with Ornamentum at Salon Art + Design (New York, NY) and Design Miami (2021).