Baltimore Museum of Art to Feature Amy Sherald Exhibition Following Artist’s Withdrawal from the Smithsonian

Over a month after painter Amy Sherald withdrew her exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), citing concerns over possible censorship, the artist has found a new home for the next stop of her touring exhibition.

**American Sublime**, which was on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art until last month, will open at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) on November 3 in place of its scheduled stop at the NPG. The Baltimore institution announced its plans to show Sherald’s work today, September 4, and said the exhibition would run until April 5, 2026.

The museum said in a press release that it had already planned to honor Sherald, who attended the local Maryland Institute College of Art, in November with the BMA’s “Artist Who Inspires” award for her artistic accomplishments, including her portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama.

“Amy’s story is also deeply intertwined with Baltimore,” BMA Director Asma Naeem said in a statement shared with Hyperallergic. “Beyond her education and time lived in our beloved city, Baltimore is rooted in her subjects, on her canvases, and in her titles.”

Sherald rescinded her exhibition from the NPG, which is part of the Smithsonian network of museums, after she said she learned the institution wanted her to replace a painting depicting the Statue of Liberty as a trans woman with a video including commentary on transgender issues. The Smithsonian Institution has said that it did not want to replace the painting, but rather add the video as a piece of context.

Among the paintings in Sherald’s **American Sublime** to be shown at the BMA this fall is the portrait “Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance)” (2013), which won the Smithsonian’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition in 2016. Sherald became the first African-American person and the first woman to win the prestigious prize, which includes a commission from the National Portrait Gallery. Her best-known work, a portrait of Former First Lady Michelle Obama, will also appear in the show alongside a tribute to Breonna Taylor and the embattled painting “Trans Forming Liberty” (2024), among others.

Sherald declined to comment on the BMA show.

Sherald detailed her decision to withdraw her exhibition in an opinion piece last week, claiming that “institutional fear shaped by a broader climate of political hostility toward trans lives” contributed to the Smithsonian’s proposal to modify the display of her painting. She condemned the Trump administration’s broader attempts to control content in the Smithsonian.

“Presenting American Sublime at the BMA is a celebration of our creative community and a joyful reunion with those shaped by Amy’s extraordinary power to connect,” Naeem said in the museum’s statement. “We’re thrilled to share her transformational work with our visitors.”