Gallery Talk with Sharif Bey

This program is presented as part of the International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF).

Join artist Sharif Bey for an in-person discussion about his exhibition Colonial Ruptures, on display in the lobby. Bey works figuratively, often repurposing fragments of his own earlier sculptures to create beings with a sense of wonder, ritual, and ambiguity.

ABOUT  SHARIF BEY

Born as one of 12 children, Sharif Bey was raised in a large African American family in Pittsburgh. While many of the men in his family left school for jobs in industry, Bey had a pivotal experience at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild (MCG) while attending high school. MCG played a formative role for Bey throughout his teens, giving him a foundation of skills and extensive ceramics-world connections.

Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, Bey studied sculpture at The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia. Later, he earned his BFA from Slippery Rock University, his MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and PhD (in Art Education) from Pennsylvania State University. His awards include The United States Artist Fellowship, The Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, The New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and The J. William Fulbright Scholarship.

His work is featured in numerous public collections including The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Carnegie Museum, The Columbus Museum, The Everson Museum, and The Westmoreland American Art Museum. Bey is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Syracuse University.

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART FAIR

The International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF) makes its highly anticipated return to the Gardiner Museum, featuring works by emerging and established ceramic artists from a wide range of backgrounds, and an exciting slate of online and in-person programming.

ICAF 2022 celebrates connections between body, identity, and land. Global mythologies have long connected the human body to the earth, from a Nubian deity fashioning humans from clay to scientific explorations of clay as the first carrier of life. The human body is symbolically if not literally connected to clay, helping us understand who we are as individuals, a society, and a species.

As we navigate global health and environmental crises, understanding our bodily connection to the earth becomes increasingly urgent. Likewise, the experiences of being, or being in, a particular body defines many aspects of our lives, from health and ability, to experiences of discrimination and trauma. Our bodies help construct our identities, mediating, filtering, and generating our experiences.

Figurative ceramic sculpture is one of the most dynamic areas of practice today. Artists from across the spectrum are exploring new approaches, representations, and voices to help us see ourselves in ways that generate compassion, empathy, truth telling, and beauty.

This year’s Honorary Patron is internationally renowned Kenyan-born British studio potter, Magdalene Odundo.

Presenting Sponsor

Lead Sponsor

Supporting Sponsors

David Binet
Margaret McCain

Contributing Sponsors

Tamara Rebanks & James Appleyard

Hotel Partner