Pop Star: Matthew Grebner
Abby Mendelson |
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Apparently, the fellow who said that every artist has a limited palate never met Matthew Grebner. Given his blinding array of colors, styles, materials, and designs, Grebner’s ceramics seem so devoid of signature that it’s virtually impossible to characterize his work. “I don’t think there’s any limit to what I can design and develop,” he shrugs.
Perhaps his confidence, coupled with a chameleonic ability to match the art to the application, explains Grebner’s meteoric rise as tilemeister to the stars. With a diverse client group that spans world-class Chef Emeril and architectural legend Cesar Pelli, and locations ranging from Beijing to the Bronx Zoo to Buena Vista Street, it’s little wonder that, from New York City bistros to the Las Vegas high-life, Connecticut casinos to Denver diners, everybody seems to be specifying his ceramics.
The miracle is that they all emerge from a retrofitted West North Avenue Oldsmobile showroom. Ably assisted by designer/colorist Shari Lynn Bennett, Grebner’s Magnificent Manufacturing works in just about anything that can be fired – porcelain, terra cotta, glass, stoneware, name it! These days, his annual 20-odd high-end applications include such gems as:
A gleaming entry for Rumi, an elegant South Miami hotspot;
An earthy wall for Pigalle, a Parisian café in New York;
Color splashes for Emeril’s Tchoup Chop, Universal Orlando;
A 30-foot mural of shimmering ceramics, The Flats at Southside Works.
It all happened by accident. Now 43, Grebner had three careers before he was 31, including software development and civil engineering. A soft-spoken man with startling gray-blue eyes, he was born in Pittsburgh, but spent his formative years in suburban Philadelphia. Some 12 years ago, needing both a place to crash and a place to land, he came home, to a long-held Spring Hill family manse. With nothing but time on his hands, he enrolled in a ceramics course. The rest is history.
“I started making stuff,” he says. “When I looked at what other people were selling, I said, ‘I can do this.’ Now, I’ll do anything anyone asks for. My only limit is imagination.”
With that Rubicon crossed, he had to decide on place. “I thought about everywhere I knew,” Grebner says, “Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans. I chose Pittsburgh. This is an extremely healthy place to start a business. There are opportunities for someone new. People are eager to help. You want to be where people want you to succeed – because they want you to stay here.”
As such, he likes the current trend toward “smaller, more innovative things,” he says. “There’s a place here for anyone with an idea. Anyone who wants to do anything here can do it. You can create the world you want around you.”
Like a recent 1880s home restoration, slate roof replaced by tile. It looks nice enough – remember, it was designed by a cat who can’t blow a wrong note – but “when it catches the light,” the artist himself smiles, “it really gleams. It’s,” he searches for a word, “magical.”
Award-winning writer Abby Mendelson is the author of numerous books, including The Pittsburgh Steelers Official History and Pittsburgh: A Place in Time, a collection of neighborhood profiles available from The Local History Company. His last Pop City piece was on Pop Star Renee Piechocki.
Photos:
Matt Grebner
South City Grill ceramic
Mohegan Sun Urn
Photograph of Matt Grebner copyright © Tracy Certo
All other photos courtesy of Matt Grebner