Amy Sherald

Amy Sherald’s vibrant portraits celebrate the multiplicity of Black identity. Her paintings often feature solid pastel backgrounds that allow her subjects’ demeanors and intricately detailed outfits to take center stage. Sherald’s intimate style has won her fans around the world, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, who tapped Sherald to paint her official portrait for the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Sherald, who received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, has exhibited in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, and Dakar. Her work, which has sold for millions on the secondary market, belongs in the collections of the Nasher Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Embassy of the United States in Dakar.