Amy Sherald’s powerful portraits are now on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The exhibition, which opened in April 2025, features around 50 paintings that showcase Sherald’s distinctive approach to realism and figurative painting. Sherald is best known for her iconic portrait of Michelle Obama and her profound depiction of Breonna Taylor.
These works, along with others, are prominently displayed at the exhibition. “She challenges the concept of color-as-race by favoring grayscale for skin tones and creates finely rendered backgrounds that provide few context clues, asking viewers to focus on the inner lives of the individuals depicted,” writes SFMOMA director Christopher Bedford in the exhibition’s foreword.
Amy Sherald’s transformative Whitney exhibition
The exhibition also includes newly commissioned works by the Whitney, with four portraits by Sherald featured on the façade of a building across the street from the museum. These pieces, some never before displayed in New York, symbolize the “intersection of past, present, and future.” The public showcase titled “Amy Sherald: Four Ways of Being” will be on view from March 25, 2025. After its stint at the Whitney, the exhibition will travel to Washington’s National Portrait Gallery.
Exhibition curator Sarah Roberts notes, “Amy Sherald’s paintings speak of the American present,” highlighting the artist’s continued relevance and impact. The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY 10014.