Amy Sherald’s portraits are making waves in the art world. Her work is now on display at the Whitney Museum in New York City. The exhibit, called “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” runs from April 9 to August 10, 2025.
Sherald is best known for her portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama. The painting shows Obama in a geometric-print gown with her hand resting beneath her chin. It breaks with the usual style of official portraits.
“The painting breaks significantly with the conventions of state portraiture, presenting Obama as gracious and comfortable, but also inward-looking and self-contained,” the Whitney Museum explained. Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor is also getting a lot of attention. Vanity Fair magazine asked Sherald to paint Taylor in 2020 after she was killed by police in Louisville, Kentucky.
In the portrait, Taylor wears a flowing blue dress and a small gold cross necklace. To create the painting, Sherald met with Taylor’s mother Tamika Palmer. She wanted to learn more about what Taylor was like as a person.
Sherald had a special dress made for the portrait to show Taylor’s love of fashion.
Amy Sherald at Whitney Museum
She also included an engagement ring to represent Taylor’s relationship with her partner Kenneth Walker.
The exhibit at the Whitney features nearly 50 of Sherald’s paintings. It is organized in the order the works were created. This helps show how Sherald’s style has changed over time.
The show includes a piece from 2007 called “Hangman” that has not been displayed since the year it was made. Sherald often uses everyday objects in her paintings to tell stories about her subjects. These include things like a tractor, beach ball, toy pony, and teacup.
One of her newest works is called “Trans Forming Liberty.” It reimagines the Statue of Liberty as a non-binary, trans-femme person. “I wanted to tell this story as a way to show her progression as an artist,” said Rujeko Hockley, the curator of the exhibit. “But also to show her complexity and deepening ambition, deepening commitment to herself as well as to her subjects.”
Visitors to the exhibit can also watch a video of Sherald working in her studio.
Whitney Director Scott Rothkopf said, “She has spoken quite beautifully about how important it was to her to paint people who looked like her and to express their individuality and to find in each of those portraits a unique person that we could relate to.”
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” is a chance to see the work of this important artist up close. The Whitney Museum is open late on Fridays and offers free admission on the second Sunday of each month. Tickets should be reserved ahead of time.
