Amy Sherald: American Sublime
November 2, 2025 — April 5, 2026
Amy Sherald: American Sublime brings together some fifty paintings by one of the foremost artists of our time. In her first major museum survey, Amy Sherald (b. 1973, Columbus, Georgia; lives and works in the New York City area) presents work from 2007 to the present, from her poetic early portraits to the incisive and moving figure paintings for which she is best known. Iconic portraits of First Lady Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor—two of the most recognizable and significant paintings made by an American artist in recent years—are joined by early works, never or rarely seen by the public, and new work created specifically for this presentation. American Sublime, Sherald’s first solo exhibition at a New York museum, considers the powerful impact of her paintings on contemporary art and culture while positioning her squarely within the art historical tradition of American realism and figuration. In her intentional privileging of Black Americans as her subjects, she extends that tradition to include a population who has historically been omitted from portraiture and representation. Sherald has described her paintings of everyday people as a more expansive vision of interiority and selfhood. The resulting body of work is a profoundly resonant ode to the multiple facets of American identity, and a convincing testament, as Sherald believes, that “imagination is image in action.”
Amy Sherald: American Sublime traces the evolution of the artist, a defining voice of her generation who transformed American portraiture.
“American Sublime is a salve. It’s a call to remember our shared humanity and an insistence on being seen.” —Amy Sherald
The exhibition tells the story of Sherald’s vision and practice through 38 paintings created from 2007 to the present—from her early, rarely seen works to her iconic, larger-than-life portraits of Black Americans in everyday moments, many of which were painted in Baltimore and feature Baltimore-based models.
A Baltimore Homecoming
American Sublime in Baltimore is more than an exhibition—it’s an occasion of civic pride and cultural affirmation. Sherald graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art, studying under the famed painter Grace Hartigan, and worked in Baltimore during her formative years.
“Baltimore has always been part of my DNA as an artist. Every brushstroke carries a little of its history, its energy, its people, and my time there. To bring this exhibition here is to return that love.” —Amy Sherald
Since the early 2010s, Sherald has employed a grayscale palette to render skin as a radical tool for redirection—a technique that focuses attention on the sitters’ interior lives and the stories within each painting. The BMA acquired Planes, Rockets, and the Spaces in Between in 2018 and has maintained a close relationship with the artist.
In 2016, Sherald made history as the first African American to win the grand prize in the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition for her painting Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance). That recognition led to the commission of the official portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama for the National Portrait Gallery’s collection. Both works are featured in American Sublime, among many other highlights, including the cultural touchstone commissioned for Vanity Fair, a portrait of Breonna Taylor; the triptych Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons); and the bold painting Trans Forming Liberty.
Artist Who Inspires
Just weeks after her mid-career survey opens at the BMA, Sherald received the Museum’s Artist Who Inspires award at the BMA Ball & After Party. As the Museum honors this groundbreaking artist at its annual gala, the exhibition stands as a testament to Sherald’s impact on contemporary art and her enduring connection to Baltimore. Her work speaks to the richness of the city and the resilience of its people, while affirming the Museum’s dedication to artists with deep local ties.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation.
Major support for Amy Sherald: American Sublime is provided by the Ford Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and Hauser & Wirth.
Amy Sherald’s work, life, and significance for American art, as revealed in her powerful figurative paintings of Black subjects
“The contemporary painter’s defining subjects are everyday Black Americans, the ‘sublime’ buried subtly, but unmistakably, in their everyday gestures.”—New York Times Book Review, “10 Giftworthy Visual Books”
Bringing together nearly all of her artwork to date, this lavishly illustrated volume situates the work of Amy Sherald (b. 1973) within the context of American realist and figurative painting. Encompassing the full arc of her career, from her poetic early works to the distinctive figure paintings and portraits that have become her hallmark, Amy Sherald: American Sublime unfolds her method of selecting individuals she meets on the street and using facial expression, body language, and clothing choices to create paintings that transcend portraiture and expand the canon of American art. Essays by curators Sarah Roberts and Rhea Combs; poet and writer Elizabeth Alexander; artist Dario Calmese; and renowned scholar Deborah Willis contextualize and illuminate Sherald’s creation of a new form of imaginative portraiture. Often depicting her subjects’ skin in gray monochrome, surrounded by few markers of place, time, or context beyond the clothes they wear, Sherald challenges the assumption that Black life is inextricably bound with struggle, creating images that engage in more expansive thinking about race and representation and the wide-open possibilities and complexities of every individual. Whether a passerby or the former first lady Michelle Obama, Sherald’s subjects are at ease with themselves, the world, and one another.
Published in association with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
