of themselves and the complexities of their interior lives, void of the constructs of race, gender, religion and

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. living through, we have a world to remake', a message that at once contains hope, while suggesting there is Bo Bartlett (born 1955) is an American realist painter who portrays elements of everyday life in America.Hearthland Foundation. This donation will allow the trust to run this scholarship programme indefinitely. When Sherald discovered dirt bike culture after moving to Baltimore in her 20s for her MFA, it left a lasting impression. When she asked her models what they loved about riding, they explained that it gives them a sense of freedom. “I read that as freedom from oppression,” she said, when I met her shortly after the show’s installation, just in time for Frieze week.

historic works or images. This includes the painting 'For love, and for country' (2022), a recreation of the iconic not solely tethered to grappling publicly with social issues and that resistance also lies in an expressive vision ofon the history of agriculture in art as well as ideas around land ownership and systematic land loss. With this the rejection of queer rights to equal participation in public space, as Sherald replaces the white heterosexual reminding us of the transient nature of childhood and the vulnerabilities inherent to it. The title of the exhibition,

Next up is academic Kevin Quashie (‘I quote his work often’, Sherald says later, crediting him as the inspiration for her greyscale skintones), who describes, in terms at once more personal and more abstract, the operations of desire, ideology and the aesthetic of what he calls ‘mere beauty’ in the artist’s work. Coates goes in for a more personal look at the artist in an inter-view that eventually, but too slowly, becomes a conversation. It’s biography that is the key to Sherald’s work here. We learn about Sherald’s heart transplant, the role of faith in her life and how important the experience of painting a portrait of Michelle Obama in 2017 was to her career and her sense of being a public figure afterwards. Collectively it’s a little confused. But the illustrations are great. of masculinity that underlie the work. As Sherald says, 'The tractor and motorbike paintings explore differentThe 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. Create a portrait of a close friend or family member using mediums such as photography, painting or drawing. What attitudes do you think are expressed through your portrait? What were you trying to capture when you created the portrait? Does the portrait reflect the complexities of the individual’s personality and identity? How so?

body of work, she continues this practice while confronting the Western canon through allusions to significant Sherald always hangs her huge portraits rather low, so that the subject's eye level is equal to that of the visitor. As Smith notes, "This creates the impression of meeting face to face, in an experience of mutual evaluation. With the paintings given plenty of room, they invite close, exclusive looking, a kind of communion." Schjeldahl argues that Sherald "revitalizes a long-languishing genre in painting by giving portraits worldly work to do and distinctive pleasures to impart." Describing Sherald's subjects, Schjeldahl adds: "They can seem mildly interested in how they are beheld - they wouldn't have bothered dressing well if they weren't - but with dispassionate self-possession, attitude-free." 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!” Breonna Taylor Legacy Fellowship and the Breonna Taylor Legacy Scholarship for undergraduates, a gift made

farm paintings from the 19th Century which reinforced notions of American identity. Here, Sherald reflects