Glass Galore: Art on Fire features SRU grad's large-scale work
A Slippery Rock University graduate's work will be the climax of the Art on Fire auction later this month at the Pittsburgh Glass Center.
Sharif Bey, who graduated from SRU with a bachelor of fine arts degree in ceramics in 1998, is the honorary artist at this year's event.His work, “Aqua Phoenix,” will be the last of the creations of 120 artists which will be up for sale.Bey is an associate professor of art at Syracuse University. He earned a master's of fine arts degree in studio art from the University of North Carolina and a Ph.D. in art education from Penn State University.According to his bio, he is “a teaching artist with extensive experience in ceramics/sculpture, art community programming and art teacher training. Bey continues to conduct workshops and facilitates collaborations in the visual arts for children and adults in schools, museums, art centers and universities throughout the United States and abroad.”Heather McElwee, the glass center's executive director, said Bey will also conduct a mini-residency at the center from Sept. 18 to 25.It was an earlier residency, she said, that started Bey using glass as an artistic medium.
“He's a ceramicist, but he started working in glass at an earlier residency in 2017,” McElwee said. “A residency gives an artist a chance to learn about the material.“His signature piece for the auction is a 4-foot glass- and-ceramic necklace,” she said. “I think the glass work he made is an extension of the work he makes in ceramics.”Bey said he remembers coming to Butler to visit Miller's Shoes and Eat'n Park during his undergraduate days at Slippery Rock.“I was the artist in residence at the glass center in 2017-18,” he said. “I was there for a year and debuted a show that fueled my success.“The glass center has this program, Idea Furnace, which is for artists without glass experience,” said Bey. “It was a great opportunity.”A native of the Beltzhoover neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Bey has had his work featured in the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum during an invitational show in November 2018.In 2019, he was named featured artist for “Disrupting Craft: Renwick Invitational,” a six-month art exhibition at the Smithsonian gallery.Bey's functional and sculptural pieces of pottery use a variety of forms and textures to reflect his interest in the visual heritage of Africa and Oceania, as well as contemporary African American culture.While some of his work combines glass and ceramic elements, Bey said, “I do both but ceramics don't require the same amount of facility that glass does.”“People think glass is fragile, but cast glass is harder than ceramic objects,” he said.And like the glazes on ceramic objects, cast glass has a relationship with light sources.His large necklace wall installation, “Aqua Phoenix,” contains both ceramic elements and glass pieces he's made at the center.McElwee said Bey's work “explores but respects the tradition of function, adornment and ceremony.”“It's a cross-section where power, ornamentation and natural materials meet traditional African symbols.“It's really powerful and beautiful work. It resonates with people,” said McElwee, who added five of Bey's pieces were bought for the permanent collection at the Carnegie Museum.
The Art on Fire auction is Pittsburgh's only glass art auction. One-of-a-kind glass art is offered in support of glass artists and the Pittsburgh Glass Center.The center is a nonprofit, public-access education center as well as an art gallery and state-of-the-art glass studio.Anyone can take classes, explore the contemporary glass gallery, and watch the live hot glass demonstrations. World-renowned glass artists come to create and teach at the center.The online auction event, in previous years held in person, is virtual this year and starts at 7 p.m. Sept. 25 on the Give Smart platform.
