Outside in the Middle:  

Aleiya Lindsey Olu, Bilge Nur Saltik, Sophie Yan, and Aaron Blendowski

September 12 - October 4, 2025

Opening Reception: Friday, September 12, 5-7 pm

In conjunction with the Detroit Month of Design

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Matéria is pleased to present Outside in the Middle, bringing together four Detroit-based artists/designers to create a unique indoor installation. Different collections of objects, vessels, furniture, and displays intermingle with natural elements in the room, with all works displayed in the perimeter of the gallery surrounding an empty middle space. Outside in the Middle presents a diverse gathering of design practices happening in Detroit today while emphasizing the city's unique connection with its generous green areas and open spaces.

 

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AARON BLENDOWSKI

From his studio in Detroit’s Eastern Market, Aaron Blendowski creates objects and images that are at once functional and speculative. An endlessly curious researcher and cultural consumer, he draws inspiration from wide-ranging sources – including film, music, fashion, philosophy, news, history, and the city that surrounds him – channeling his meditations on contemporary life into a continuously evolving practice at the intersection of art and design. 

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Fueled by an aptitude for invention and experimentation, Blendowski blends handcraft and digital processes to transform traditional materials like wood, metal, stone, and fiber into one-of-a-kind and limited-edition furniture, sculpture, installations, and graphics, each layered with thought-provoking allusions to the world as it was, is, and could be. 

 

For Outside in the Middle, Blendowski is presenting an installation of NEO-Study wall pieces.

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Trained as both a sculptor and industrial designer, Blendowski earned a BFA from the College for Creative Studies and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art before launching his studio in 2010. Dedicated to community building, he is Cofounder and Creative Director of OmniCorp Detroit, a shared collaborative workspace, and he frequently partners with local creatives to produce a diversity of projects and pop-ups. As the Fabrications Manager at Cranbrook, he leads workshops on materials and processes, alongside providing one-on-one guidance to students to help bring their work to life.

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Blendowski’s work has been exhibited in a number of institutions, galleries, and fairs, including Cranbrook Art Museum, Atlanta Contemporary, In Good Company, Reyes | Finn, Wasserman Projects, Superhouse, Walker Art Center’s Idea House 3, and Design Miami. His practice has been featured in national and international publications, such as Damn, Design Milk, Document Journal, Elle Decor Italia, Paper, and Sight Unseen.

 

 

ALEIYA LINDSEY OLU

Aleiya Lindsey Olu is a Detroit-based creative and entrepreneur whose work bridges design, culture, and community. She is the founder of From Us To You, a design studio exploring storytelling and material culture, and co-founder of Detroit Art Week, a citywide festival spotlighting contemporary art and design. With her partner Amani Olu, she also runs Olu & Company, a consultancy supporting creatives and cultural institutions. In 2024, she launched Periodicals, a Core City magazine and lifestyle shop that reflects her commitment to print culture and community-building. Through her ventures, Aleiya continues to shape Detroit’s cultural landscape at the intersections of art, entrepreneurship, and design.

 

For Outside in the Middle, Lindsey-Olu is presenting two chairs from her Lyndon collection.

 

BILGE NUR SALTIK

Bilge Nur Saltik’s practice explores the intersection of craft and technology, blending traditional techniques with digital fabrication and contemporary materials to create objects that are both poetic and functional. Her collections in ceramic, glass, and 3D printing investigate how materials can carry cultural memory while adapting to new forms of production.

 

For Outside in the Middle, Saltik is presenting new works from Postmark, a series of rugs and vases inspired by postage stamps—objects that symbolize movement across borders. The collection reflects her practice of working between continents and considers how craft knowledge travels, adapts, or sometimes encounters barriers. Geometric shapes framed by postmark patterns create compositions of hollow and solid forms, suggesting points of connection, passage, and interruption.

 

Saltik’s designs have been exhibited internationally, with presentations at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Het Nieuwe Instituut, and Shanghai Glass Museum, as well as at Milan, London, and Istanbul Design Weeks. Her work has been featured in Wired, ICON, and Frame and recognized by Dezeen, Crain’s Detroit Business, and the Isola Design Award.

 

Saltik is also the founder of Form&Seek, a women-led design studio based in Detroit, where she develops new collections and collaborative projects that expand the role of design in daily life. With more than 13 years in the field of design, Bilge Nur Saltik is also Associate Professor of Product Design at Lawrence Technological University. 

 

 

SOPHIE YAN

Sophie Yan is a designer and educator based in Detroit, Michigan. Her work spans the fields of interior design, furniture design, and textiles. Her work examines sustainability through the issue of object longevity – designing objects and spaces that will stay in use for a long period of time. As a craft-based maker, her practice oscillates between two modes - one of rationalization and rules, the other of intuition and experimentation.

 

Sophie’s work has been showcased in ArchDaily, Dwell, and The Architect’s Newspaper, NYCxDesign, Wanted Design, Collective Design Fair, and Ventura Future. Sophie holds a Master of Fine Arts in 3D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a Bachelor of Interior Design from Virginia Commonwealth University.

 

For Outside in the Middle, Yan is presenting an installation of Pin Felted Vessels, Plinths, and Blanks, a series works that emerged from an eight-month research and development grant awarded by the Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center, where she explored the possibilities of the FeltLOOM needle felting machine alongside ISAIC’s other industrial capabilities. At the heart of this research lies a series of questions: How might hand-making processes and industrial processes speak to one another? Where does craft end and production begin? In what ways can the presence of the hand complicate or enrich the perception, desirability, and longevity of an object?

 

Sophie Yan's practice more broadly is grounded in addressing the problem of overconsumption by asking what qualities cause people to hold on to and care for objects over time. Durability, material quality, and formal balance are part of the answer, but so too are more elusive qualities: sentiment, adaptability, or the ability of an object to hold meaning through lived experience. I am interested in how design and making might create circumstances for such attachments to form.

 

The pieces in this body of work were created through a reciprocal process of intuitive hand-making and iterative evaluation within industrial production. This oscillation between hand and machine reflects my ongoing investigation into the role of the designer, the maker, and the user in shaping an object’s life. By opening space within production for flexibility and creative input, I aim to test how meaning and care can be inscribed into objects not just by their end users, but also through the processes of their making.

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