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Worn on the Body

A new exhibition at Kansas City’s Belger Crane Yard Studios celebrates handmade adornment.

By Kasey Payette
February 17, 2026

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Photo courtesy of the artist

Patrycja Grzesznik's 2025 head adornment Neon Rose is made from vinyl, cotton thread, and wire, 16 x 16 in.

When it comes to personal adornment, the boundary between functional and decorative is fluid. At its most basic, the function of a garment is protection against the elements. But adornment also signals one’s role in community or society, can be a vehicle for self-expression, and can offer protection from more than just the weather.

Second Skin: Exploring Adornment as an Extension of Self, a new exhibition on view through May 2 at Belger Crane Yard Studios in Kansas City, Missouri, positions the craft of adornment as “a visual language that shapes identity,” showcasing hats, shoes, garments, jewelry, and other accessories that bridge fine craft traditions and contemporary expressions of adornment and selfhood. The exhibition is produced in partnership with Handwork 2026, a nationwide initiative to showcase the enduring importance of the handmade throughout history and in contemporary life.

Second Skin focuses on “works that relate to the human body while conveying personal narratives, cultural heritage, and intimate stories,” says Belger Arts Operations Manager Katie Hogan, who led the exhibition’s curation. The show features works by Cheryl Eve Acosta, Shae Bishop, Hadley Clark, Mona Cliff, Patrycja Grzesznik, Kit Paulson, Rob Stern, Kate Kretz, Ellen Greene, and Renée Stout.

Photo courtesy of the artist

Cheryl Eve Acosta's Armada Collection: Mare is a copper suit of armor of sorts

Belger Crane Yard Studios, one of three Belger Arts locations in Kansas City, provides studio and exhibition space, programming in ceramics education, and residencies for emerging and established artists. Shae Bishop, Hadley Clark, and Rob Ster—all residency alumni—have artworks in Second Skin. Works by Kate Kretz, Ellen Green, and Renée Stout were drawn from the Belger’s permanent collection.

Kretz’s Defense Mechanism Coat was acquired for the Belger Collection after her 2007 solo exhibition at the Belger Arts Center. The coat, one of Kretz’s first fiber-based works, is made with wool from a thrift-store winter coat, velvet lining hand-embroidered with veins and arteries, and 150 pounds of roofing nails pushed through the fabric. “Where we normally use clothes to construct the identity we present to the world, I was interested in creating clothes that revealed our vulnerabilities, or what we keep hidden,” says Kretz.

The works in this exhibition—and their connections to Belger Arts residency programs and permanent collection—demonstrate an investment in artists and creative community. The partnership with Handwork 2026, says Hogan, is “a natural alignment with Belger Arts’ ongoing commitment to supporting and celebrating the handmade.”

Photo by Belger Arts, courtesy of Belger Collection

Roofing nails piece the wool and velvet of Kate Kretz's 2001 Defense Mechanism Coat, 45 x 28 x 12 in.

Kasey Payette is a writer and editor based in Minneapolis.

Learn more about the exhibition online.

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