Fire Starter: Sharif Bey
People and organizations making sparks at PGC
Pittsburgh-born artist and educator Sharif Bey has a long and meaningful connection to Pittsburgh Glass Center—one that began with a leap into an unfamiliar material. After years of working primarily in clay, Bey came to PGC in 2017 as an Idea Furnace artist-in-residence, having more than 20 years of professional experience but little knowledge of glass. With the support and encouragement of PGC’s team of artists, he found a place where experimentation, collaboration, and even uncertainty could become part of the creative process.
Bey’s residency at PGC culminated in a solo exhibition in March 2018, Dialogues in Clay and Glass, and glass has continued to be part of his practice ever since. More of his early work in glass was featured in the Renwick Invitational at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in November 2018, as well as in a solo exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art in October 2021. Bey has remained involved at PGC following his residency, serving on PGC’s Board of Directors for several years and supporting its Shattering Expectations capital campaign, helping to advance the organization’s vision for a more accessible and thriving future.
Now, after years of traveling the world while based in Syracuse, Bey is returning to Pittsburgh, bringing his artistic practice and a deep connection to his hometown back with him. His plan to return coincides with Homecoming, an exhibition at The Andy Warhol Museum which celebrates Bey’s formative roots in Pittsburgh’s arts education community as well as his international renown in the contemporary art field through a dialogue of his sculptures with work by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Several of his pieces in the show include elements of glass that were made at PGC, such as the spoons adorning the headdress of his Domestic Queen sculpture.
Bey continues to support PGC through generous artwork contributions to Art on Fire, PGC’s annual auction fundraiser. You can find the piece he donated this year, Jar with Textured Surface, on view now in PGC’s Hodge Gallery.
Bey’s ongoing generosity reflects a lasting belief in PGC as a place where artists can take risks, find community, and bring ambitious ideas to life.
