living through, we have a world to remake', a message that at once contains hope, while suggesting there is

And after century upon century of figurative painting, carving out a USP is a pretty rare thing. It's made her a huge name, got her the gig to paint Michelle Obama's official portrait, and now she’s over here with her first UK show. In this exhibition, Sherald plays with traditional American symbology through the portrayal of vehicles such

heterosexual people within the US military in recent history. The photograph prompted Sherald to think of the Newly commissioned texts include an art historical analysis by Jenni Sorkin, a mediation on the aesthetics and politics of Sherald’s portraiture by Kevin Quashie, and a conversation between the artist and Ta-Nehisi Coates. The effect is to give each subject a singular clarity of voice, as our focus zooms in on pose, gesture and other more idiosyncratic identity cues. Kara Walker (born 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, printmaker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor exploring race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity through her work.

Despite all the changes to her life, Sherald still makes herself available to younger artists in need of a mentor who can shed light on the inner workings of the art world and market. Her easy manner may be partly due to being raised in the south of the US. Or maybe it’s her avid embrace of non-New York City living, a puncturing of shallow requirements for being a “real” artist. Or it might be that Sherald’s just a “giver”, a role she says comes naturally but also one she’s been placed into during various family and personal emergencies. Travelling from the artist's major exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in London, her first solo show in Europe, a selection are and who have the kind of light that provides the present and the future with hope.' The painting 'Kingdom' For 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.”While some mistakenly cast her numerous accolades as shotgun successes, a mild frustration Sherald experienced after the Obama portrait’s unveiling, she has built her successes on a solid foundation: a decades-long art career with multiple exhibitions, apprenticeships and a master of fine arts in painting. “I think it’s really important that people understand that this stuff doesn’t happen overnight,” says Sherald. expressions of self-sovereignty in our communities, and how these expressions might carry into the future. American Realism American realism was a movement in art, literature and music which showed contemporary social realities and people’s everyday lives. portraiture, alluding to a reappropriation of this historically Western style of painting. A monumental work entitled reminding us of the transient nature of childhood and the vulnerabilities inherent to it. The title of the exhibition,

The title of the show itself is a form of healing for the artist, who understands that “as we walk beyond what we have been living through, we have a world to remake,” according to Sherald. An example of this is her painting, For love, and for country (2022), which references Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic photograph, V-J Day in Times Square (1945), which prominently shows a US Navy sailor kissing a woman in New York City as Imperial Japan surrendered in the Second World War. “The 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,” said Sherald in a statement.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!”