Amy Sherald
THIS WEEK on the GWA Podcast, we interview one of the most acclaimed painters working in the world right now, AMY SHERALD! \n\nWith their striking elegance and commanding yet inviting gazes, Amy Sherald\u2019s subjects exude grace, dignity, power, and joy. Unrooted in time, place, or space \u2013 and on the threshold between surreality and reality \u2013 they feel at once familiar yet utterly otherworldly as they glow in hues of gold, pinks, blues and oranges, often meeting our gaze with their dazzling aura. \n\nSherald, through figurative painting, documents the contemporary African American experience in the United States. By engaging with the traditions of photography and portraiture, she opens up discussions about who has been immortalised, historicised, and who has been able to write, paint and dictate these narratives. As a result, her paintings open up vital debates about race and representation. \n\nBut they\u2019re also just as much about capturing and creating a record of the joy and everydayness of life. With a process that includes working from photographs that she stages and takes of individuals that capture her interest, the artist has said: \u201cThe works reflect a desire to record life as I see it and as I feel it. My eyes search for people who are and who have the kind of light that provides the present and the future with hope\u201d. And it is this that we see in her paintings. \n\nBorn in Columbus, Georgia, Sherald received her MFA in painting from Maryland Institute College of Art and BA in painting from Clark-Atlanta University. Sherald was, in 2016, the first woman and first African-American artist to receive the prestigious Portrait Competition from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., and in 2018, was selected by First Lady Michelle Obama to paint her portrait. Depicted as both triumphant and approachable (with the pattern on her billowing dress referencing the Gee\u2019s Bend Quiltmakers), Obama\u2019s gaze is full of wisdom and optimism. \n\nNow in some of the most prestigious museum collections in the world, we meet Sherald today in London, at Hauser & Wirth, where she has just opened her first ever European solo exhibition, The World We Make. \n\n--\n\nLINKS::::::\n\nThey Call Me Redbone but I\u2019d Rather Be Strawberry Shortcake (2009)\nhttps://nmwa.org/art/collection/they-call-me-redbone-id-rather-be-strawberry-shortcake/\n\nMiss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance) (2013)\nhttps://portraitcompetition.si.edu/exhibition/2016-outwin-boochever-portrait-competition/miss-everything-unsuppressed-deliverance\n\nAfter winning this award, Sherald was put forward as a contender for First Lady Michelle Obama\u2019s official portrait.\nMichelle Obama Official Portrait (2018)\nhttps://npg.si.edu/Michelle_Obama\n\nEXHIBITION: \u2018The World We Make\u2019 at Hauser &Wirth (until 23 Dec)\nhttps://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/38424-amy-sherald-the-world-we-make/\n\nMORE \u2013 \n\nSimone Leigh, Amy Sherald and Lorna Simpson for NYT Mag: \nhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/08/magazine/black-women-artists-conversation.html\n\nhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/arts/design/amy-sherald-michelle-obama-hauser-wirth.html\n\nNYT interview on Michelle Obama portrait: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/arts/design/amy-sherald-michelle-obama-official-portrait.html\n\nNew York Times Magazine, Amy Sherald and others on being Black cultural leaders and being seen: \nhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/t-magazine/black-artists-white-gaze.html \n\nPeter Schjeldahl on the Amy Sherald Effect for the New Yorker 2019:\nhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/23/the-amy-sherald-effect\n\n--\n\nENJOY!!!\n\nFollow us:\nKaty Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel\nResearch assistant: Viva Ruggi\nSound editing by Nada Smiljanic\nArtwork by @thisisaliceskinner\nMusic by Ben Wetherfield\n\nhttps://www.thegreatwomenartists.com/\n\n--\n\nTHIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY CHRISTIES: www.christies.com