LGBTQ Artist Amy Sherald Returns to Baltimore with Landmark Exhibition American Sublime

This fall, the Baltimore Museum of Art welcomed home one of the most influential painters of our time. Amy Sherald: American Sublime—the most comprehensive survey of Sherald’s work to date—opened November 2 and marks a powerful reunion between the artist and the city that shaped her early career. Featuring approximately 40 paintings created between 2007 and 2024, the exhibition traces Sherald’s evolution from her early studio practice to the iconic, nationally recognized works that have helped redefine contemporary portraiture.

The BMA is the third venue for this acclaimed mid-career survey, which debuted at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2024 before traveling to the Whitney Museum of American Art in spring 2025. American Sublime will remain on view in Baltimore through April 5, 2026.

A Homecoming for a Celebrated Artist

For Sherald, returning to Baltimore is deeply personal. She earned her M.F.A. in painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art and lived in the city for many years, gaining early national attention while rooted in its creative communities. The BMA has long championed her work, acquiring Planes, Rockets, and the Spaces in Between in 2018 and featuring her in multiple exhibitions and programs.

The museum will also honored Sherald at the 2025 BMA Ball on November 22 as one of its “Artists Who Inspire,” alongside Wangechi Mutu and the Sherman Family Foundation.

“Baltimore has always been part of my DNA as an artist,” Sherald said. “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.”

BMA Director Asma Naeem echoed this sentiment, noting, “She has become a cultural force, capturing the public imagination through works that are powerful and resonant in their profound humanity. Presenting American Sublime at the BMA is a celebration of our creative community and a joyful reunion with those shaped by Amy’s extraordinary power to connect.”

Exhibition Highlights

American Sublime guides visitors from Sherald’s early works—pieces that reveal the foundation of her visual language—to the grandly scaled portraits that cemented her place in contemporary art. Highlights include:

• Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance), the painting that won the 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition

• Her widely acclaimed portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama

• Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons), a sweeping triptych created specifically for this exhibition

• The memorial portrait of Breonna Taylor

• The monumental Trans Forming Liberty

• Rarely exhibited works that illuminate new facets of Sherald’s creative process

Across these works, visitors can trace Sherald’s exploration of storytelling through pose, palette, and fabric; her transformation of traditional portraiture; and her unwavering commitment to revealing the nuances and humanity of her subjects.

Reimagining Portraiture and American Identity

Sherald’s paintings rework the conventions of Anglo-European portraiture, placing everyday people in scenes that feel both grounded and elevated. Her subjects—varying in age, identity, and lived experience—frequently embody roles tied to American mythologies and histories: the farmer, the cowboy, the friends at the beach. Yet these portrayals deftly challenge stereotypes and invite deeper reflection on race, identity, and belonging.

One of Sherald’s most distinctive choices is her use of grayscale skin tones, a technique that shifts attention from race to shared humanity. This stylistic decision encourages viewers to look beyond initial assumptions and consider each subject’s interior life, dreams, and personal narrative.

Photography plays a foundational role in her process. Except for two major commissions—Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor—Sherald personally selects her sitters, drawn to what she calls their “ineffable spark.” Photoshoots unfold organically, allowing her to capture natural gestures before curating each scene with wardrobe and styling that further build the story on canvas. The result is a blend of authenticity and quiet magical realism.

Her painting titles often draw from the writings of Toni Morrison, Lucille Clifton, and other Black women authors, adding layers of poetic nuance and expanding the emotional landscape surrounding each portrait.

Free admission is available for BMA members, visitors ages 17 and under, and student groups. The museum also offers free entry on Thursdays from 5–9 p.m., on opening day (November 2), and on January 15 and February 19.

Photo Credits: Mitro Hood and Kelvin Bulluck