We are pleased to announce that the John Michael Kohler Arts Center has added Crown Series: Opal by Sharif Bey to its collection. Created during Bey’s 2024 residency at the center, this piece revisits themes explored during his first residency in 2014. Drawing inspiration from the nkisi figures of West-Central Africa and his family’s industrial heritage in Syracuse, Bey’s work honors the awe-inspiring power of nature—a force that evokes profound reverence. As Bey reflects, “We all come from something bigger than us. I interrogate alternative ways of honoring tradition, function, adornment, and ceremony.”
February 15, 2025
