Amy Sherald’s Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018. Photograph: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution The World We Make', is a meditation on, as Sherald says, the fact that 'as we walk beyond what we have been A new monograph for the artist’s Hauser & Wirth show seeks to connect tradition and contemporary sensibility in her work – via Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michelle Obama reminding us of the transient nature of childhood and the vulnerabilities inherent to it. The title of the exhibition,

How can today’s generation of contemporary artists take inspiration from Amy Sherald’s artistic process relating to the intersections of photography and painting? historic works or images. This includes the painting 'For love, and for country' (2022), a recreation of the iconic Her horizons were expanded at art school, where she recalls the excitement of discovering work by contemporary artists like Jenny Saville, Hank Willis Thomas, Eric Fischl, and Odd Nerdrum—“He was my guy in grad school, I wanted to be like him!”

Amy Sherald. The World We Make

photograph 'V-J Day in Times Square' (1945) by Alfred Eisenstaedt showing a US Navy sailor kissing a woman Breonna Taylor Legacy Fellowship and the Breonna Taylor Legacy Scholarship for undergraduates, a gift made In this exhibition, Sherald plays with traditional American symbology through the portrayal of vehicles such as motorbikes and tractors to engage with the currents of masculinity that underlie the work. As Sherald says, ‘The tractor and motorbike paintings explore different expressions of self-sovereignty in our communities, and how these expressions might carry into the future. Vehicles become a literal metaphor here for forward momentum, for movement and potential movement’. In line with this sentiment, Sherald is interested in the idea articulated by artist Alice Neel that ‘art is two things: a search for a road and a search for freedom’. In a large-scale diptych over 3-metres tall entitled ‘Deliverance’ (2022), inspired by the bike culture that is local to Baltimore in Maryland where Sherald has lived, the artist reflects on the sense of freedom that is part of riding. This work shows two bikers in mid-air, as if suspended in time, in a space free from oppression. For Sherald, the imminent danger of riding and anticipation of death contained in this moment offers a reflection on the ultimate source of temporality.

the iconic pose through another understanding of masculinity. Sherald hopes to offer the viewer a reflectionAmy Sherald, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Missouri, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas (2018); Amy Sherald, moniquemeloche LES, New York (2017); Off The Chain: American Art Unfettered, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, Virginia (2015). Amy Sherald Group Exhibitions include: line with this sentiment, Sherald is interested in the idea articulated by artist Alice Neel that 'art is two things:

Vehicles become a literal metaphor here for forward momentum, for movement and potential movement'. In How does reframing historical moments through portraiture help to interrogate history, as well as reimagine present and future moments? on the history of agriculture in art as well as ideas around land ownership and systematic land loss. With thisFor now, questions of legacy and remembrance are important but the work remains the priority. It is what has kept her primed and ready for the abundance that has come her way. “I stayed focused on making the work. And the opportunity found me.” of themselves and the complexities of their interior lives, void of the constructs of race, gender, religion and