Amy Sherald constructs visual worlds where Black Americans command the center stage of the American narrative, using soft pastels and audacious color choices to reclaim territory on the canvas.
This May, the High Museum of Art becomes the final destination for "Amy Sherald: American Sublime," a mid-career retrospective bringing together more than 35 paintings spanning nearly two decades. It's the most comprehensive exhibition of Sherald's work to date, and its arrival in Atlanta carries particular significance for an artist with deep roots in Georgia.
The exhibition's path to Atlanta was unconventional. Originally scheduled to conclude at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the show faced an unexpected challenge when the Trump administration issued an executive order targeting what officials deemed "un-American content" in federal institutions. Concerned about potential censorship, Sherald withdrew from the D.C. venue. The High Museum then secured the fourth and final stop on the national tour after presentations in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore.
Sherald was born in Columbus, Georgia, and earned her BFA from Clark Atlanta University in 1997. The High previously awarded her the David C. Driskell Prize in 2018 and displayed her portrait of Michelle Obama in a 2022 exhibition. That iconic portrait returns in this retrospective, surrounded by works that render Black American life with the solemnity and reverence traditionally reserved for presidents and dignitaries.
The exhibition unfolds across five thematic sections exploring different facets of Sherald's artistic evolution. Early works examine identity and performance, themes connected to her own upbringing.
"I grew up in a world that was very black and white," Sherald said during a public conversation at the museum. "It wasn't until I moved back here for five or six years to take care of family that I realized a great part of my personality had been shaped by performance, that assimilation was something I felt very comfortable with."
Sherald paints ordinary Black Americans with extraordinary intentionality. A motorcyclist. A young woman at rest. A family gathered together. In her hands, these everyday scenes transform into monuments of dignity.
Among the exhibition's most powerful works is Sherald's portrait of Breonna Taylor, commissioned by Vanity Fair. It represents the first time Sherald painted someone who wasn't alive to sit for her. She met with Taylor's family, listened to recordings of her laugh and studied her presence.
The finished work positions Taylor among friends and peers, refusing the dehumanizing impulse that often accompanies tragedy in media circulation. Every detail carries intention. The dress Taylor wears was designed by Atlanta-based artist Jasmine Elder. A ring honors the partner who had planned to propose. These are acts of remembrance, small rebellions against erasure.
Sherald has described her artistic practice as historical reclamation. "Every time I make a painting, I'm constantly reaching back from the past," she explained. "But we have to be simultaneously in each era, present with the now and in the past, while also trying to expand into something greater for the future."
The exhibition also features "For Love, and for Country," which reimagines Alfred Eisenstaedt's iconic V-J Day photograph by centering Black subjects where they were historically absent, and "Ecclesia," a triptych created specifically for this show.
Assistant curator Angelica Arbelaez said: "I hope visitors will walk away understanding how Amy developed as an artist, how she has been thinking about the way images work, how they create meaning, how they circulate in the world. She has a very deep and incredible commitment to rendering Black American life with joy, dignity, and confidence."
In a cultural moment where Black narratives remain contested terrain, Sherald's work functions as both mirror and manifesto — a refusal to accept the margins, a declaration that dignity is non-negotiable.
"American Sublime" opens May 15 and runs through Sept. 27 at the High Museum of Art.
