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Amy Sherald

AMY SHERALD

The World We Make Hauser & Wirth 12 October–23 December 2022 London
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Press Release

Amy Sherald, one of the defining contemporary portraitists in the United States, unveils a suite of new paintings in a major exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London, marking the artist’s first solo show in Europe. Featuring a series of small-scale and monumental portraits across both the gallery’s London spaces, this presentation is the artist’s largest to date with the gallery. Sherald is acclaimed for her paintings of Black Americans at leisure that have become landmarks in the grand tradition of social portraiture – a tradition that for too long excluded the Black men, women, families, and artists whose lives have been inextricable from public and politicised narratives.

In this new body of work, Sherald humanises the Black experience by depicting her subjects in both historically recognisable and everyday settings, at once immortalising them and reinserting them into the art historical canon. Sherald foregrounds the idea that Black life and identity are not solely tethered to grappling publicly with social issues and that resistance also lies in an expressive vision of self-sovereignty in the world. By subverting existing narratives, Sherald hopes to offer the viewer a reflection of themselves and the complexities of their interior lives, void of the constructs of race, gender, religion, and preconceived notions.

The first widely available monograph on Amy Sherald will accompany this exhibition, published by Hauser & Wirth Publishers. Newly commissioned texts include an art historical analysis of Sherald’s work by Jenni Sorkin, a meditation on the poetics of the Black ordinary by cultural scholar Kevin Quashie, and a conversation between Sherald and author Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Amy Sherald has recently donated $1 million to the University of Louisville to fund the Brandeis Law School’s Breonna Taylor Legacy Fellowship and the Breonna Taylor Legacy Scholarship for undergraduates, a gift made possible by the sale of Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor made in 2020 to the Ford Foundation and the Hearthland Foundation.

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About the Artist

Born in 1973 in Columbus, GA, and now based in Baltimore MD, Amy Sherald documents contemporary African-American experience in the United States through arresting, otherworldly portraits. Sherald subverts the medium of portraiture to tease out unexpected narratives, inviting viewers to engage in a more complex debate about accepted notions of race and representation, and to situate black heritage centrally in the story of American art.

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Also Exhibiting at Hauser & Wirth

All Exhibitions
Group Exhibition
GROUP EXHIBITION Directionless Hauser & Wirth 21 June–25 October 2026 Menorca
James Jarvaise, Henry Taylor
JAMES JARVAISE, HENRY TAYLOR Sometimes a straight line has to be crooked Hauser & Wirth 12 June–5 September 2026 Zürich, Limmatstrasse
Avery Singer
AVERY SINGER War_overlays Hauser & Wirth 12 June–5 September 2026 Zürich, Limmatstrasse
Frank Bowling
FRANK BOWLING Like Water Hauser & Wirth 11 June–29 August 2026 Hong Kong
About the Gallery

Hauser & Wirth was founded in 1992 in Zurich by Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Ursula Hauser, who were joined in 2000 by Partner and Vice President Marc Payot. A family business with a global outlook, Hauser & Wirth has expanded over the past 26 years to include outposts in Hong Kong, London, New York, Los Angeles, Somerset and Gstaad. The gallery represents over 70 artists and estates who have been instrumental in shaping its identity over the past quarter century, and who are the inspiration for Hauser & Wirth’s diverse range of activities that engage with art, education, conservation and sustainability.

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Address
23 Savile Row
London
United Kingdom
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Saturday
10am – 6pm
(1)
London 23 Savile Row
Hauser Wirth contemporary art gallery in London United Kingdom
Hauser & Wirth
23 Savile Row, London, United Kingdom
+44 207 287 2300
http://www.hauserwirth.com

Opening hours
Tuesday – Saturday
10am – 6pm
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