When asked how best to engage in one’s practice, Sharif Bey, who is an associate professor of art at Syracuse University as well as an artist, says, “One of the most significant things is slowing down and learning how to accept that there is no immediate answer, to tolerate ambiguity, and to cope with uncertainty.” For Bey, making art is like having a tuning fork, but one has to find the reflective space in which the tuning fork can be heard. Bey’s focus is nature, power, and those forces that inspire awe. He grew up in Pittsburgh, and for this exhibition at the Carnegie Museum, which he visited often as a child, Bey has looked to the museum’s collections, “excavating” them for visions and meanings which he has then used to create new works. —L.J.