Featured Artist: Amy Sherald

Amy Sherald, African American, woman, painter.

These words leave a lot of room to talk about Amy Sherald, who having grown up as a witness of the lack of racial diversity in the South, now creates compelling life-size portraits that speak of a desire for diversity, in all its forms.

The Make Believe

The Boy With No Past

Saint Woman

Miss Everything

Equilibrium

While she deals with heavily loaded concepts such as race, identity, class and gender, her portraits challenge our understanding of these themes through color. Even though all of the sitters in her portraits are black, her use of gray to paint their skin prompts the questions of why color determines race. In the same way, the vibrant hues used for the background serve to highlight these notions and call us towards them, almost hypnotically.

A clear unspoken granted magic

The Fairest of the Not So Fair

In an interview with Gallery Gurls, Sherald reveals that her titles are a collaborative work with her sister, who has always been better with words. Many of the titles have a hint of poetry, they're an exploration of identity as much as the paintings are.

Sherald's portraits map the terrain for a whole generation of artists of color and women artists as well. Her works are currently in the Smithsonian Museum's collection, of which she proudly speaks of for its efforts in heritage preservation.

Two of her works are currently on view at the Studio Museum in Harlem. You can also visit Sherald's website here.

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