Artist Amy Sherald with ‘Miss Everything’, her winning entry on display at National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C. It shows the brilliance of this artist.  Image: National Portrait Gallery

ARTIST: Amy Sherald survives heart failure and wins $25,000 prestigious art award

BY KAZAD

Amy Sherald, Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance) 2014, 54″ × 43″. Oil on Canvas, Image: National Portrait Gallery

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND — When Amy Sherald was called as the winner of this year’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, she was consumed by insurmountable joy.  As she walked across the exhibition hall in her beautiful brown attire, she was radiant and beautiful.  She had not only surpassed all expectations, she had also won $25,000. She is the first woman to ever win the prize.

Artist Wins Art Prize After Heart Failure

Hanging on the exhibition wall behind Sherald was the painting that won her the most prestigious portraiture award in the United States.  Titled Miss Everything, the oil on canvas painting is the portrait of a young slender Baltimore woman standing in front of a rich, blue background.  In her hand is an oversize white teacup.  Her look is piercing as she gazes at the viewer in a clear and yet contemplative manner. She is both inviting and repelling all at once. It is more like “look at me,” and “What are you looking at.”

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The paradox of this image is on the woman’s dress. The woman’s dress has two sides: One side is plain dark blue fabric while the other has polka dots. The artist presents a duplexity which engenders multiple readings and questions.  Adding to that complexity is Miss Everything’s immaculate white gloves and a chirpy red hat that emphasizes Sunday best. On one hand, Miss Everything represents a servant in a fictional dress. On the other, she epitomizes that rich woman we have all seen in historical films.

Black Lives Matter Movement

Inspired by the recent riots in the Baltimore and Black Lives Matter movement, Miss Everything holds multiple stories. Perhaps, the most important is that people just want to be appreciated for who they are.  Sherald put it succinctly:  “A lot of people are just asking to be seen as human beings, and not as a product of their environment.”

In addition to winning the $25,000 prize money, Sherald will also be commissioned to paint the portrait of a famous living person for the museum’s permanent collection. When she was asked who she would paint, she smiled and her face brightened. “Lenny Kravitz,” she replied blushingly.  Of course, there are other choices like Colin Powel, Serena Williams, and Spike Lee.

The National Portrait Gallery has a long list of  American icons that Sherald can select from. “You can imagine the history of America. There are a lot of people that need to come into the collection,” said Kim Sajet, National Portrait Gallery Director.  Before 2001, the portrait of the American icon to be added to the collection was reserved for those who had been dead for 10 years. The rule, however, changed in 2001 to include living people. The commissioned portraits of past winners include Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Esperanza Spalding.

Artist Amy Sherald Survives

That Amy Sherald was able to walk on stage to celebrate her prize was a miracle.  When she was just 30 years old, she got a devastating diagnosis that put her on the precipice of death. One day “my heart just didn’t want to work anymore,” she said.  Soon after, she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. 

From then on, Sherald’s health went down the hill. For several months she laid on the sickbed, and her cardiologist told her to expect the worst.   But at a point when she was almost giving up hope, a miracle happened.  A matching donor was found, and a transplant was performed. It was successful.

Today, Sherald is as fit as a fiddle, and her career is booming.  Standing on stage, she acknowledged the fact of how unreal it was that she was right there. “I never imagined that I’d be standing here right now talking to you.”  Her survival became the impetus to go on. “I know this is what I’m born to do. And I feel like I’m on the path, standing here right now. I am on the path,” she said.

Sherald’s route to excellence has been filled with spikes.  When she decided to become an artist, her mother would not hear it.  She advised her to become a lawyer, doctor, or dentist. “You can do art by the side,” she said.  Artists had a reputation as paupers, and Sherald’s mom did not want that for her daughter.   She wanted her to have a job that would feed her. “I wanted her to be able to eat; I wanted her to be able to buy her own groceries,” she said. 

An Artist Route to Excellence

Sympathetic as Sherald was to her mother’s quest, she did not allow it to dissuade her. She was persistent and determined to follow her dreams.  After high school, Sherald attended Clark-Atlanta University, where she received a degree in painting.  She later attended the  Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where she earned her masters of fine art in painting in 2004.

Sherald’s artworks were autobiographical in the early part of her career. They speak of her experience growing up and where she lived. Furthermore, they reflected the adversities she experienced.  However, her new works are following a different course.  They are informed by the issues of gender, race, and identity. Sherald’s large-sized portraits have taken on a more social context narrative as a way of stimulating relevant discourses about topical matters.

Miss Everything Wins Award

One of those large-sized portraits is Miss Everything. Like this award-winning piece,  Sherald’s artworks have brought her great recognition.  Her focus is to continue to create works that dig deep into social issues, including gender disparity, racial degradation, and identity.  “My work is inspired by fantasy and bit of reality,” she said during the award ceremony.  Her focus continues to be on “creating  a body of work that was  an archetype.” The hope is that “it’s going to carry me for a while,” she said.

About the Artist

Born in Georgia, Sherald’s devotion to her craft has given her recognition at home and abroad.  She was an artist in residence at a program in Panama. While in Larvik, Norway, she studied with acclaimed Norwegian figurative painter Odd Nerdrum. Influenced by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Nerdrum who is celebrated for his anecdote and narrative theme and style.

Sherald has also tried her hands at curating. In 1999, she curated and installed shows at the South American Biennale in Lima, Peru.

While committed to her art, Sherald is deeply involved in teaching art.  Presently an artist in residence at the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown,  Sherald also volunteers to teach art at the Baltimore City Detention Center.  Her artwork can be found at the Smithsonian African America Museum and at The National Museum of Women in the Arts.

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is held every three years. Sponsored by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, the exhibition encourages “artists to explore the ever-evolving art of portraiture.”

For this year’s competition, entries came from 19 states and D.C. “They are absolutely referencing what they’re seeing around them: single mothers, youth at risk, Black Lives Matter, gender issues,” Kim Sajet, National Portrait Gallery Director said.  Unlike other years,  the 2016 competition shows a shift from conceptual and non-traditional reformations of the genre.

American Portraiture Today

Sherald’s  Miss Everything is part of The Outwin 2016: American Portraiture Today exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.  The show features 43 top entries to the competition.  It includes Mavis in the Basket, by photographer Cynthia Henebry. The image captures an emotionally charged young girl sitting pensively in a car. Also on display is Joel Daniel Phillip’s amazingly detailed drawing of an African American who seems to be down on his luck. It won the third-place prize.

The Outwin2016: American Portraiture Today, runs through  January 8, 2017, at National Portrait Gallery.

Amy Sherald, Well Prepared and Maladjusted. Image: courtesy of the artist.

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