Amy Sherald

Meta description: Explore the life and art of Amy Sherald — from her Georgia upbringing and health struggles to painting Michelle Obama’s official portrait. Learn about her techniques, influences, and the legacy she’s building in contemporary portraiture.

Introduction

Amy Sherald (born August 30, 1973) is an American painter best known for her striking portraits of African Americans in everyday settings, rendered with a distinctive use of grayscale for skin tones and vivid color in clothing and context.

Her work challenges conventional narratives about race, identity, and representation. Her most famous commission — the official portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama — brought her widespread public recognition and stimulated conversations on how Black bodies are portrayed in the art world.

This article gives a deeper look into her life, artistic evolution, philosophy, challenges, her most quoted words, and the meaning behind her legacy.

Early Life and Family

Amy Sherald was born in Columbus, Georgia, to Amos P. Sherald III, a dentist, and Geraldine W. Sherald. Worldwide Church of God, which did not observe mainstream Christian holidays like Christmas or Easter, but instead emphasized Sabbath observance and Old Testament feasts.

As a child, Sherald was drawn to drawing and visual expression. She would often add illustrations to her written work—small pictures of houses, flowers, birds—to accompany her text.

A key early moment occurred on a field trip to the Columbus Museum. Sherald encountered a painting by Bo Bartlett titled Object Permanence, which included an image of a Black person. She described that moment as transformative, helping her see that art was not just historical or distant, but alive—and that people like her could belong in that visual space.

Despite her artistic inclinations, Sherald’s parents urged her toward more “practical” paths (such as medicine). She initially enrolled in a pre-med track in college, but her path shifted toward studio art when she cross-registered for a painting class.

Sherald also faced family and health challenges: her father passed from Parkinson’s disease; her brother later died from lung cancer.

These experiences—loss, illness, survival—deeply inform the emotional depth and introspection in her portraits.

Youth, Education & Early Training

Sherald earned her Bachelor of Arts in painting from Clark Atlanta University in 1997. Spelman College and worked under the mentorship of Arturo Lindsay (Panama-born artist and art historian).

After her undergraduate years and some apprenticeship and early work, she entered the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, receiving her MFA in painting in 2004.

During early career phases, Sherald worked with Arturo Lindsay’s studio (e.g. installing exhibitions) and waited tables to support her own art practice.

Her training and early work laid the technical foundation and also exposed her to the art world’s rhythms, demands, exhibition practices, and the emotional challenges of sustaining a studio practice.

Artistic Style, Themes & Method

Style & Technique

Sherald’s paintings can be described as simplified realism or a modern, contemplative portraiture. grisaille (tones of gray) rather than conventional flesh tones. She began using this approach consistently from about 2012 onward.

Her decision to use grayscale is deliberate: she has stated that it “challenges conventional thinking” about how viewers perceive race and the social weight of skin color. By removing the expectation of “skin color,” she shifts focus to posture, gaze, expression, clothing, and context.

The figures often occupy calm, quiet spaces; clothing and backgrounds are frequently colored in bold palettes or patterned fabrics. The juxtaposition of grayscale figures with vivid color creates a visual contrast that draws attention to the subject’s presence, posture, and psychological world.

Many of her works begin with extended photography sessions: she meets potential subjects (often in public or via encounters), photographs them (sometimes over time), waits for a pose to settle, and then paints from those images.

Themes & Conceptual Concerns

• Identity & Representation
  Sherald aims to humanize her subjects beyond reductive social narratives. Her portraits often elevate everyday people into dignified, contemplative presences. Her work invites viewers to look beyond superficial assumptions.

• Race & Perception
  By rendering the figure's skin in grayscale, Sherald provokes questions about how we perceive race visually and conceptually. Her work encourages the viewer to question assumptions about blackness as a monolith or stereotype.

• Interior Life & Emotion
  Her portraits often convey introspection, quiet confidence, vulnerability, or resolve. She directs attention to pose, gesture, composition—how individuals inhabit space.

• Alternate Narratives
  Sherald’s art participates in redefining narratives of Black life—not as tragedy or spectacle, but as nuance, ordinary experience, aspiration, and inner worlds.

• Public & Political Engagement
  Some of her works respond directly to current events and social justice issues. A notable example is her portrait of Breonna Taylor (2020), commissioned for the Vanity Fair cover, which evokes dignity, agency, and remembrance.

• Institutional Interactions & Autonomy
  More recently, Sherald has been involved in debates about how her work is exhibited and contextualized. In 2025, she withdrew her planned solo show American Sublime from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery over concerns that one piece might be removed due to political pressure.

Her work lives in public collections (including the Whitney, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of African American History and Culture, among others) and continues to engage discourse in art, race, identity, and institutional representation.

Career Milestones & Achievements

Breakthrough & Recognition

• In 2016, Sherald won the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition (National Portrait Gallery) with her painting Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance). She was the first woman and first African American to win that prize.

• In 2017, she was selected by former First Lady Michelle Obama to paint her official portrait (while Kehinde Wiley painted former President Barack Obama). The portraits were unveiled in 2018. This made Sherald (and Wiley) the first Black artists ever commissioned for presidential portraits by the National Portrait Gallery.

• The Obama portrait, in Sherald’s style (grayscale figure, colorful dress, calm pose), sparked broad discussion and significantly increased attendance at the museum.

• In December 2020, Sherald’s painting The Bathers (2015) sold at auction for USD 4,265,000, nearly 30 times its presale estimate. Later, her painting Welfare Queen (2012) sold for USD 3.9 million.

• She has received several honors: the David C. Driskell Prize (High Museum of Art, 2018), Anonymous Was A Woman award, and more.

Exhibitions & Public Works

Sherald’s work has been shown in museums and galleries across the U.S. and internationally.

Some notable shows:

• the heart of the matter… – Hauser & Wirth, New York (2019)

• The Great American Fact – five new works from 2020, exhibited in 2021

• Amy Sherald: American Sublime (2024–2025), exhibited at SFMOMA and Whitney, though later she declined showing it at Smithsonian due to censorship concerns.

• Public murals, e.g. a mural version of Equilibrium in Baltimore, via community art initiatives.

Her works are held in major public collections including the Whitney Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and more.

Legacy, Influence & Cultural Impact

Redefining Portraiture & Representation
Sherald’s artistic choices—particularly the use of grayscale skin—have influenced how contemporary artists think about representation, racial perception, and the visual politics of identity. Her work invites viewers to reconsider how they "see" race.

Expanding Narratives of Black Life
Her subjects are not always celebrities, nor always overt “statements”; they are individuals, everyday people, intimate interior lives, embodied with dignity. This shift helps expand how Black life is seen in visual culture.

Bridging Art & Social Consciousness
Portraits like her Breonna Taylor commission show her willingness to engage with urgent social issues—remembrance, justice, visibility. Her work does not shy away from hard questions.

Institutional Discourse & Power
Sherald’s decision in 2025 to pull her Smithsonian show over censorship concerns underscores her commitment to artistic integrity and autonomy. This act has rippled in art world conversations about institutional politics, race, and trans visibility.

Inspiration & Mentorship
Her story — overcoming health crises, carving space in a male-dominated and historically exclusionary art world — is inspiring to younger artists, especially Black women. She embodies both craft and conviction.

Personality & Creative Philosophy

From interviews and profiles, some traits and motivations emerge:

• Sherald approaches her art with seriousness and devotion. She often describes her practice as demanding, requiring intense focus, patience, and rigor.

• She values subtlety, restraint, and trust in the viewer—she does not over-explain; she invites contemplation.

• Her health challenges and survival experience have deepened her sense of time, mortality, and what it means to give presence to someone in portraiture.

• She is deliberate about how her work is exhibited, curated, contextualized—she maintains agency over her artistic narrative. Her withdrawal of American Sublime from Smithsonian demonstrates this principle.

• She often frames her work as conversation—between subject, artist, and viewer—and acknowledges the weight of legacy and lineage in Black visual traditions.

Memorable Quotes by Amy Sherald

Here are a few notable quotations that speak to Sherald’s perspective, artistry, and values:

“I challenge the viewer to see the color of someone’s clothes before they see their skin.”
(Paraphrased from her discussions on the use of grayscale in her portraits.)

“I want the work to be a resting place—one where you can let your guard down among figures you understand.”

“In many ways I’m still trying to figure out how to live again after a heart transplant.”

“The portrait of Michelle Obama felt like a way to slow down history.”

“I didn’t think about what it meant to enter into the political world via that platform. I just thought, ‘Okay: how do I bring what I do into this moment?’”
(Reflecting on her selection for the Michelle Obama portrait.)

These quotations capture her reflective, principled voice and her commitment to creating space and dignity through art.

Lessons from Amy Sherald’s Journey

1. Artistic innovation can be a radical act
   Sherald’s choice to render skin in grayscale is visually bold, but it also disrupts assumptions—reminding us how aesthetic choices carry meaning.

2. Presence over spectacle
   Her portraits are not always dramatic; they often ask the viewer to slow down, observe posture, gesture, gaze, and emotional weight.

3. Agency over compliance
   Her decision to withdraw a major exhibition over institutional pressures demonstrates the importance of preserving integrity—even at cost.

4. Resilience in the face of adversity
   Facing health crises, personal loss, and systemic barriers, Sherald persisted—to build a voice grounded in craft and conviction.

5. Representation as expansion
   Her portraits show that representation is not just visibility—but the nuance, interiority, complexity of life.

Conclusion

Amy Sherald is a transformative figure in contemporary art. Through her distinctive visual language and courageous decisions, she invites us to reconsider how we “see.” Her journey—from Georgia to MICA, from health struggles to painting the First Lady—speaks to perseverance, vision, and a deep dedication to dignity in portraiture.

Her legacy is still unfolding. As institutions, audiences, and the world evolve, Sherald’s work encourages us to meet one another not as symbols, but as individuals. If you wish, I can also compile a gallery of her most iconic works or trace how other contemporary artists have been influenced by her. Would you like me to do that?