Viewing Amy Sherald

A brief take on how SIUE Promise Prize Scholars Nia Roy and Al Smith respond to Amy Sherald’s portraiture, showing how students articulate the power of her grayscale technique, vibrant color contrasts, and confident subjects to reshape perceptions of Black identity and everyday representation.

Narration by Kassandra Timm

Transcript

Nia Roy: Vibrant, Relatable, Beautiful, Revolutionary

Kassandra Timm: That’s Nia Roy, a Promise Prize Scholar from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, giving one-word responses to artwork by Amy Sherald.  

Nia Roy: Amy Sherald has a magnificent power to capture a subject’s likeness to change the narrative about how they are viewed. Simplifying the subjects to vibrant colors and confident and playful poses helps reveal their personalities in ways that depart from negative and harmful stereotypes. They call me Redbone, but I’d rather be strawberry shortcake (2009) is a perfect example of creating a relatable yet empowering figure that highlights the tension of racial labeling. 

Kassandra Timm: You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions—a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American artistic productions and more.

Kassandra Timm: Amy Sherald is one of our most recognizable contemporary visual artists. Her work reimagines Black portraiture and reshapes how we think about everyday representation. Viewers find her work striking and unforgettable.

Kassandra Timm: Here’s Al Smith, also a Promise Prize Scholar from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, discussing Sherald’s artwork. 

 Al Smith: Amy Sherald uses a grayscale palette that brightens her work. It offers a contrast that really brings out the colored clothes, accessories, and environments in her paintings. This is prominent in her “What's precious inside of him does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence (All American)” painting where the subject’s bright American flag patterned shirt is offset by his grey hands and face. 

 Kassandra Timm: Nia Roy, too, draws viewers’ attention to the function of Sherald’s grayscale technique: 

 Nia Roy: These radical works of art shape contemporary African-American artwork. Sherald’s most famous work, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (2018), diverts from traditional presidential paintings by showcasing Michelle Obama’s beauty, grace, and power. The coolness of her gray-toned skin contrasting against the bright and colorful patterns of her dress creates a compelling and beautiful work that speaks to many Black women. 

 Kassandra Timm: According to Al, a couple words come to mind when it comes to Sherald’s artwork. 

 Al Smith: Contrasting. Intense. Sherald’s artwork has a unique ability to add a lot of brightening and familiar colors and offset them with much darker and dim ones. The art as a result intensifies because the bright colors that are oftentimes associated with happiness and warmth meet with colors that are oftentimes attributed to sadness and coldness. It makes for an emotionally conflicting experience. 

 Kassandra Timm: Specifying what is striking in artwork that moves vast audiences helps pinpoint the remarkable experience of viewing Sherald’s work.

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Contributors to this episode include Nia Roy and Al Smith, 2025–2026 Promise Prize Scholars. The Marie Nesbitt Promise Prize was established in 2002 by Vikki Pryor and promotes learning and scholarship by supporting emerging leaders committed to serving their communities.

 Additional writing for this episode was provided by Howard Rambsy, edited by Elizabeth Cali, and read by me, Kassandra Timm.

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This podcast, Remarkable Receptions, is part of the Black Literature Network, a project from African American literary studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.