Amy Sherald’s portraits capture the essence and beauty of Black America. Her work is now the focus of a new exhibit at the Whitney Museum in New York City. The show, titled “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” features nearly 50 paintings.
It is the most comprehensive exhibition of the American artist’s work to date. Sherald became well-known after creating the official portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama in 2017. The painting broke with the conventions of traditional state portraiture.
It presented Obama as gracious and comfortable, but also inward-looking and self-contained. The exhibit also includes Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor, commissioned by Vanity Fair magazine in 2020. Taylor was killed by police officers in Louisville who forcibly entered her home.
Her death highlighted the disproportionate levels of police violence faced by Black Americans.
Sherald’s portraits celebrated at Whitney
To create the painting, Sherald met with Taylor’s mother to learn about what her daughter was like.
The show chronicles the evolution of Sherald’s work over the past 25 years. It illuminates how she uses American iconography to craft relatable narratives about her subjects. The exhibit also features new works by Sherald, including “Trans Forming Liberty.” This piece recasts the Statue of Liberty as a non-binary, trans-femme person.
It suggests that the ideal of acceptance must be applied to all citizens. In addition to the paintings, the exhibition includes a video showing Sherald at work in her studio. “She has spoken quite beautifully about how important it was to her to paint people who looked like her,” said Whitney Director Scott Rothkopf.
“Although many of the paintings are the same scale, the same format, each is just full of so many stories waiting to be discovered.”
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” is on view from April 9 to August 10, 2025 at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan. The museum is open every Friday evening and on the second Sunday of each month. Visitors are encouraged to reserve tickets in advance.
