Epically, Ecstatically, and Sublimely Black: A Reflection on Amy Sherald’s Mid-Career Retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art

Blockbuster Amy Sherald exhibit opens in Baltimore

Artist Amy Sherald has emerged as a hero in the LGBTQ community following her controversial decision to pull her blockbuster new exhibit “American Sublime” from the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. and move it to Baltimore after Smithsonian officials sought to censor her painting “Trans Forming Liberty.” That painting depicts transgender model Arewà Basit as the Statue of Liberty, which conflicts with President Trump’s war on DEI and his effort…

Epically, ecstatically, and sublimely Black: A reflection on Amy Sherald’s mid-career retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art

Standing before Amy Sherald’s work, you must learn to stretch; many of her canvases require the reorientation of your perspective, inspire you to become more flexible about your vantage, crane your neck upward in reverence to the quiet opulence of lives well lived.  To see her defiantly whole and beaming portraits is like the first time you experience a sky free from light pollution. Humbled, you realize the absurdity of doubt.  It’s not just th…