AMY SHERALD

Whitney Museum

Through August 10, 2025

Run, don’t wait, and see the final days of the remarkable exhibition, Amy Sherald: American Sublime at the Whitney. In fact, make it a day so you can indulge in Sherald’s deeply felt portraits.

There’s the young woman in a pale, blue maxi dress and orange visor, standing in lush green grass while leaning against a yellow bike with a red wire basket holding sunflowers, white, and maroon flowers and a sweet, long white-haired pup with a distinctive pink nose. Color abounds in every canvas.

Take the woman wearing a half black, half black and white polka-dot dress outlined in white holding an oversized white cup in her white gloved hands against an aqua background. A bright red hat with a large red flower drops over her right eye.

In 2018, when Sherald painted the now iconic portrait of Michelle Obama, she began painting on linen. This adds a luminescent hue to the already arresting images.

Known for her desire to platform Black people from every walk of life, Sherald’s subjects aren’t just staring, they appear to be thinking as she looks into their souls.

C. Ipiotis