The celebrated portraitist’s first New York museum solo show brought nearly fifty works to the Whitney, capturing the depth and dignity of Black American life
Amy Sherald, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018. Oil on linen, 183.1 x 152.7 x 7cm). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. The National Portrait Gallery is grateful to the following lead donors for their support of the Obama portraits: Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg; Judith Kern and Kent Whealy; Tommie L. Pegues and Donald A. Capoccia. Courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery
The Whitney Museum of American Art opened ‘Amy Sherald: American Sublime’ on the 9th of April, 2025, marking the artist’s long-anticipated New York museum debut. As Sherald’s first major solo exhibition in the city, the show traced the evolution of her practice from 2007 to the present, gathering nearly fifty works that together illuminated her unmistakable contribution to contemporary American art.
Organised chronologically, the exhibition offered a rare opportunity to view early paintings rarely seen by the public alongside new work made especially for the occasion. Visitors also encountered two of Sherald’s most iconic portraits—those of First Lady Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor—which have helped cement her place in the canon of American portraiture.
Sherald’s work is deeply rooted in American realism and figuration traditions, yet it challenges the genre by centring Black Americans—subjects historically marginalised or omitted in art history. Her use of a distinctive grayscale palette for skin tones subtly redirects attention from race to the individuality of her sitters, while her use of everyday props—a toy horse, a flag, a teacup—imbues each composition with narrative richness and cultural resonance.
“American Sublime is a salve,” Sherald said. “A call to remember our shared humanity and an insistence on being seen.”
Alongside the gallery presentation, Whitney also unveiled Four Ways of Being, a new commission displayed on the façade of the Horatio Street building. The installation brought together four portraits exploring different modes of existence and experience, several of which had never been shown in New York before.
Sherald, born in Columbus, Georgia, and now based in the New York area, has spent nearly two decades redefining the American portrait. Her paintings often draw on photography as a foundation, blending documentary-style realism with poetic nuance. Her practice has been shaped by early influences ranging from family photo albums to canonical figures like Edward Hopper, Alice Neel, and Barkley Hendricks.
The exhibition, which ran through the 10th of August 2025, was organised at the Whitney by Rujeko Hockley, Arnhold Associate Curator, with David Lisbon, curatorial assistant. Originally developed by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and curated by Sarah Roberts, ‘Amy Sherald: American Sublime’ was accompanied by the artist’s first comprehensive monograph, published in collaboration with Yale University Press.
A robust schedule of public programs, both virtual and in-person, accompanied the exhibition, inviting audiences to engage more deeply with Sherald’s practice and the broader themes her work explores.
The exhibition will be on view until the 8th of August 2025. For more information, please visit the Whitney Museum of American Art.
