Meet the Artists Who Will Paint Official Portraits of the Obamas

The Smithsonian revealed the two artists set to paint official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama. Kehinde Wiley, famous for portraits of young Black men that incorporate elements of Western art, will paint the former president. Baltimore artist Amy Sherald will paint the former First Lady. Both will be the first Black artists to create official presidential portraits for the Smithsonian. Both portraits are set to be unveiled in early 2018 and hang in the National Portrait Gallery. Wiley is known for lush, larger-than-life portraits that overlay Black street culture with European classical motifs. He has painted rapper LL Cool J in the style of John Singer Sargent, Ice T as Emperor Napoleon by David, and young African American men in stained glass tableaus, like saints in a cathedral. Sherald, who graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2004 and just joined the faculty there, is known for her use of gray skin tones. Last year, she became the first African American and the first woman to win the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition; she was chosen for the $25,000 award from among 2,500 entrants. Her work is included in collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the NMAAHC. More here.