2026 SECA Art Award: CrossLypka, Em Kettner, Chanell Stone

Every two years, SFMOMA celebrates Bay Area artists and our creative community with the SECA Art Award. Established in 1967, the award has honored nearly one hundred local recipients with an exhibition and platform for expanding their practices and sharing their work with new audiences.

The 2026 SECA Art Award exhibition celebrates CrossLypka, Em Kettner, and Chanell Stone. Each will debut a gallery with new works showcasing their inventive practices across sculpture, ceramics, photography, drawing, and textiles.

CrossLypka is the collaborative practice of Tyler Cross (b. 1992, Lancaster, California) and Kyle Lypka (b. 1987, Philadelphia). Based in Oakland, they have worked together for more than a decade on freestanding and wall-mounted ceramics. The mirroring and symmetry seen in their works emphasize the nature of collaboration: two disparate minds and bodies at work.

Artist and writer Em Kettner (b. 1988, Philadelphia) is based in Richmond, California. Her small sculptures, tapestries, and drawings explore themes surrounding inter-abled and interdependent relationships. A twist on votive objects, traditionally used as offerings to ward off illness, Kettner’s artworks employ humor as they detail the ingenuity of people with disabilities.

Chanell Stone (b. 1992, Los Angeles) lives and works between Richmond and Oakland. Grounded in Black feminist thought, Stone theorizes how memory and place are inscribed onto and throughout the body. Through technically daring photographs and poetry, she explores Black American presence and belonging in the American South.