The museum became a venue for “American Sublime” after Sherald withdrew her exhibition from the Smithsonian, citing censorship concerns.
Rhea Nayyar
February 11, 2026
— 3 min read
Amy Sherald, “Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons)” (2024) (courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth)
The traveling exhibition Amy Sherald: American Sublime has set a new attendance record at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) since it opened last November, the institution said this week.
According to a BMA spokesperson reached by Hyperallergic, attendance stood at 63,000 as of Monday, February 9, and is expected to peak at 75,000 by the time the show closes on April 5. That makes Sherald's mid-career survey the museum's most-attended show since 2000 — a remarkable feat considering that the BMA was not an original destination on American Sublime's itinerary.
Consisting of nearly 50 quietly contemplative grisaille portraits of Black Americans, Sherald's show debuted at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in November 2024, and later traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan, where it was open from April through August 2025. The Whitney's iteration of American Sublime marked the artist's first solo exhibition at a New York museum.
Hyperallergic has contacted SFMOMA and the Whitney about their attendance figures for the show.
Amy Sherald, “Breonna Taylor” (2020) (© Amy Sherald; photo by Joseph Hyde, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth)After its run at the Whitney, Sherald's survey was scheduled to land at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery (NPG) last September, but the artist cancelled the Washington, DC, leg in July over censorship concerns involving a painting in the exhibition.
The work in question, “Trans Forming Liberty” (2024), depicts Arewà Basit, a well-known Black transwoman and drag performer, holding a torch and posing like Lady Liberty while wearing a pink wig and blue dress. As the Trump administration sharpened its aim at the Smithsonian, Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch II had suggested adding a video of visitors reacting to and talking about the work, the artist claimed.
“The video would have opened up for debate the value of trans visibility and I was opposed to that being a part of the American Sublime narrative,” Sherald told the New York Times, ultimately concluding that “the conditions no longer support the integrity of the work as conceived.”
Amy Sherald, ”Trans Forming Liberty” (2024) (© Amy Sherald; photo by Kelvin Bulluck, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth)Following the show's withdrawal from the Smithsonian, BMA stepped in to host American Sublime, noting that it had already planned on presenting the Maryland Institute College of Art alum with an award.
The BMA spokesperson explained that more than 2,000 exhibition visitors participated in a museum survey to evaluate the show's reception. The responses reveal that 85% of attendees were Maryland residents, and almost a quarter of the respondents had visited the museum for the first time to see American Sublime.
Visitors from 35 states also paid the show a visit, as did some international attendees primarily from Europe. Equally noteworthy, 30% of respondents were under the age of 50 and 47% of respondents spent two or more hours perusing the exhibition.
“What we’re hearing again and again is how deeply people feel seen, moved, and connected in these galleries,” BMA Director Asma Naeem shared in a press statement. “This moment reflects not only her enduring impact as an artist with roots in this city, but also the power of art to bring people together and feel kinship and joy.”
Exhibition view of Amy Sherald's “Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama” (2018) and “Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance)” (2014) at the Baltimore Museum of Art (image courtesy the museum)“Amy’s paintings imagine an everyday life centering Blackness and honor the dignity of Black communities and witnessing such a broad swath of humanity embrace her vision is extraordinary,” Naeem said.
The exhibition will make its final stop at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where it will be on display from May 15 to September 27.
