Most comprehensive exhibition to date for Georgia native and David C. Driskell Prize winner
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime”
May 15-Sept. 27, 2026
Amy Sherald (American, born 1973), “A God Blessed Land (Empire of Dirt),” 2022, oil on linen. © Amy Sherald. Photo by Joseph Hyde.
ATLANTA, Nov. 19, 2025 — Coming in spring 2026, Atlanta’s High Museum of Art will be the last stop on the national tour for “Amy Sherald: American Sublime” (May 15-Sept. 27, 2026), the acclaimed mid-career retrospective for the Georgia native and the largest exhibition of her work to date. Featuring more than 35 paintings made from 2007 to 2024, the presentation will include many of Sherald’s most iconic works, along with rarely seen paintings spanning her career.
Born in Columbus, Georgia, Sherald has deep ties to Atlanta and to the High. She trained as a painter in the city and graduated from Clark Atlanta University. In 2018, the High awarded her its annual David C. Driskell Prize in African American Art and Art History, the first national award to recognize the importance of African American art. In 2022, the museum presented “The Obama Portraits Tour,” featuring her renowned portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama, which will be on view in “American Sublime.” Most recently, her work held pride of place in last year’s presentation of “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz & Alicia Keys.”
“While Amy and her work have been present in Atlanta for many years, this will be the first opportunity to engage with the full measure of her practice,” said the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. “We’re really proud to share that with Atlanta while celebrating an artist whose work so strongly resonates with our community.”
“Bringing American Sublime to the High Museum is exciting because it is where my story began as a young art student in Columbus, Georgia,” said Sherald. “As a former Atlantan, I’m looking forward to returning to celebrate the cultural and artistic power that is born in this city.”
The High is the fourth and final venue for this exhibition, which is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), where it debuted in 2024, and which previously traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art. The exhibition is on view now at the Baltimore Museum of Art (through April 5, 2026) before it comes to Atlanta.
“American Sublime” considers the important impact of Sherald’s work on contemporary art and on American culture, as she addresses the omission of Black figures from the history of figure painting. In addition to the Michelle Obama portrait, featured works include Sherald’s iconic portrait of Breonna Taylor for Vanity Fair magazine and the painting “For Love, and for Country,” which references Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous photograph of a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on V-J Day in 1945. The presentation will also include Sherald’s first triptych, “Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons),” created for the exhibition.
Exhibition Catalogue
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” is accompanied by the artist’s first comprehensive monograph, which represents the broad sweep of Sherald’s painting practice as well as her key influences and inspirations. Contributors include exhibition curator Sarah Roberts (SFMOMA’s former Andrew W. Mellon curator and head of painting and sculpture), along with writer and poet Elizabeth Alexander, artist Dario Calmese, curator Rhea L. Combs and renowned artist and scholar Deborah Willis. The book is published by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in association with Yale University Press.
Exhibition Organization and Support
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and curated by Sarah Roberts, former Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA. The High’s presentation is curated by Angelica Arbelaez, assistant curator of modern and contemporary art. This exhibition is made possible by Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor Delta Air Lines, Inc.; Major Exhibition Series Supporters Sarah and Jim Kennedy; Premier Exhibition Series Supporter Harry Norman Realtors; Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporters Robin and Hilton Howell; Ambassador Exhibition Series Supporter Mrs. Harriet H. Warren; and Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters Farideh and Al Azadi, Mary and Neil Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones, Megan and Garrett Langley, Margot and Danny McCaul, and Wade A. Rakes II and Nicholas Miller. Generous support is also provided by Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund and USI Insurance Services.
About the High Museum of Art
Located in the heart of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions and engaging community-focused programs. Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 20,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from prehistory through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper. The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists and the creative process. For more information about the High, visit www.high.org.
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Marci Tate Davis
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404-733-4423
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