CHRISTOPHER MYERS
The painter Amy Sherald will join the Baltimore Museum of Art’s board of trustees. The news comes ahead of the reveal of Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama, which, along with Kehinde Wiley’s painting of Barack Obama, will be unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., on February 12.
Sherald’s work typically takes the form of richly colored figurative portraits of black men and women. In May, her paintings will be the subject of a solo exhibition—her first at a museum—at the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis.
Christopher Bedford, the museum’s director, said in a statement, “As we develop a new strategic plan, it is important to have the voice of artists like Amy on the BMA’s Board of Trustees. Amy will bring a unique perspective to museum leadership, one that not only draws on her career as one of today’s most important artists, but also on her ties to the city of Baltimore itself.”