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The painting, Michelle LaVaughn Obama, is on display at the BMA. Photo by Leon Laing.

I first admired Amy Sherald’s work at Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. The exhibit, featuring various artists, took place at the Brooklyn Museum last year. Giants included Sherald’s Deliverance, two colossal paintings of men on motorcycles.

Fast forward to this fall, and American Sublime, Sherald’s solo exhibit, appears at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA). I had the pleasure of attending the exhibit’s press tour led by Director Asma Naeem on Oct. 29.

Sherald, 52, originally planned to hold the exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. But she selected BMA instead to avoid censorship from the current presidential administration. Her ties to Baltimore include graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art. About half of the paintings in American Sublime feature faces of Baltimore-based sitters.

To redirect the viewer, Sherald opts for gray skin color instead of brown. She wants people to see the humanity in her paintings.

Among the 40 paintings, there are only two paintings titled with peoples’ names: Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama and the late Breonna Taylor.

Obama looks regal and chic.

Sherald immortalized Taylor by painting her with a glamorous dress and her hand planted confidently on her hip. The painting graced the cover of Vanity Fair’s September 2020 issue.

Sherald’s vivid and majestic paintings are relevant like a thought-provoking story by Nikole Hannah Jones. In other words, Sherald’s work has thrusted her into an elite group of black Gen Xers.

Amy Sherald: American Sublime runs until April 5. Free admission is on Thursday evenings; all day on Jan. 15 and Feb. 19; and for BMA members. If you’re visiting this exhibit outside of those days, please visit artbma.org for admission fees.