The portraitist known for paintings of Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor is bringing her first major museum survey to San Francisco and then New York City

The portraitist Amy Sherald is largely known for two paintings she made of Black Americans whose lives have intersected with US history – the first was the official portrait of the former first lady Michelle Obama, and the second was a posthumous image of victim of police brutality, Breonna Taylor, whose murder was a significant factor in sparking the racial uprisings of 2020. Sherald is also well-known for her choice to render the skin color of her Black subjects in grisaille – that is, shades of gray.

Recognized as a major talent in the American art world, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has given Sherald a sizable survey exhibition, one that is worthy of her immense talent, dedication and originality. Titled Amy Sherald: American Sublime, the show collects nearly 50 of her works across the major sweep of her career since 2007, including the aforementioned portraits of Obama and Taylor. The show also features newly commissioned work that Sherald is debuting – these include the opening triptych Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons), as well as the closer Trans Forming Liberty in which Sherald poses a trans woman as the Statue of Liberty.