Sharif Bey

Sharif  Bey is a Syracuse-based artist and educator. 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 a PhD in art education from Penn State University.  Inspired by modernism, functional pottery, Oceanic Art and Art of the African diaspora, Bey’s works investigate the cultural and political significance of adornment and the sym-bolic and formal properties of archetypal motifs, while questioning how the meaning of icons and function transform across cultures and time.

His awards include The United States Artist Fellowship (2022), The Pollock-Krasner Fellowship (2018), and The New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (2017). Bey’s works are featured in numerous public collections including: The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Columbus Museum, Art Bridges Foundation, New Orleans Museum of Art, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Mint Museum, and The Nelson Atkins Museum among others. Exhibitions in 2024 include Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at the New Orleans Museum of  Art  and solo exhibitions at albertz benda, New York and the John Kohler Arts Center, Wisconsin. A forthcoming solo exhibition, Sharif Bey: Homecoming, will be presented at the The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh in 2026.