Latest news with #Sherald
Dominion Post
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
Morgantown set to battle Wheeling Park in Region I baseball championship series
MORGANTOWN – The Morgantown High School baseball team will meet Wheeling Park in the Class AAAA Region I championship series this week, with the winner earning the right to represent Region I next weekend in the 2025 WVSSAC state baseball tournament in Charleston. The two sides have met three times this season, with Wheeling Park taking two of the three contests. The Patriots won both regular-season matchups by one run before MHS took the OVAC 5A title game 4-2. Wheeling Park will host Game 1 on Tuesday. Game 2 will move to Dale Miller Field at Mylan Park in Morgantown with a decisive Game 3 heading back to Wheeling, if needed. 'We've been working on fundamentals and making sure we are ready to do what we do best,' MHS head coach Pat Sherald said. 'In this series, you're going to see two talented baseball teams go head-to-head and battle. We had three close games against them already this season. They're a well-coached club who pitch well and are strong defensively. But I like our team as well and I think we're going into the week prepared and focused on the task at hand.' In the three games the two sides played this season, the Patriots had success at the plate, earning more hits than MHS in all three contests. Particularly, the bottom half of the Wheeling Park lineup. 'They can hurt you all through their lineup,' Sherald said. 'They had a few guys have some very strong games against us and we've been able to see some tendencies. But for us we just need to worry about controlling what we can control and putting the blinders on to achieve our goal.' One thing that may benefit the Mohigans this week is their pitching rotation of Vinnie Aloi, Maddox Boggs, and Lucas Shinn. The trio has combined for a record of 15-3 this season and each have an ERA under three runs while throwing more than 35 innings. Aloi and Boggs have each thrown 30 strikeouts as well. Closer Judd Messerly has three saves in as many attempts this season. 'I think that benefits us in a best-of-three,' Sherald said. 'I really like where those three are right now and hopefully they continue throwing strong and throwing strikes. We got some good innings for them against Bridgeport and Fairmont Senior this week in preparation and we will be ready to go come Tuesday evening.' Morgantown and Wheeling Park begin the Region I championship series Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. in Wheeling. Game 2 will be at 5:30 p.m. in Morgantown on Wednesday.
Elle
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
TLC, a Milestone Anniversary, and $6 Million Raised: Inside the Star-Studded Whitney Gala
Last night, New York's art world turned out in style to celebrate a milestone moment at the 2025 Whitney Gala. The annual soirée marked a decade since the museum's move to its downtown home in the Meatpacking District—and the 10-year anniversary of the Max Mara Whitney bag. Adding to the festivities, the evening shattered records, raising an impressive $6 million in support of the museum. Hosted by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, with honorary co-chairs Judy and Leonard Lauder, the gala drew a dazzling roster of attendees including Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan, Claire Danes, Laura Harrier, Jordan Roth, and Nicky and Kathy Hilton. Set against the backdrop of the museum's soaring galleries, the evening paid tribute to three influential figures whose work has left an indelible mark on the art world: acclaimed artist Amy Sherald, esteemed curator and scholar Barbara Haskell, and devoted patron Richard DeMartini. The Whitney's mission to celebrate American art—both past and present—was powerfully reflected throughout the evening. Sherald, best known for her portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama, delivered a moving speech reflecting on her artistic journey. 'When I first began painting portraits, I wasn't trying to make history. I just wanted to offer images that looked like the world I come from—ordinary and extraordinary at the same time,' she explained. 'Art has given me a way to process the world, to imagine new ones, and to leave something behind that speaks when I'm not in the room.' Standing in a space that once felt out of reach, Sherald's words echoed a powerful sentiment first voiced by Obama herself at the 2015 opening of the Whitney's downtown home—remarks revisited by museum director Scott Rothkopf during the gala. 'There are so many kids in this country who look at places like museums and think, 'That's not a place for me,'' Obama had said. Rothkopf reflected on how the Whitney has embraced that challenge, working to 'open our doors as wide as possible'—a mission now realized through inclusive initiatives like Free Friday Nights and Free Second Sundays. Haskell, who has dedicated five decades to the Whitney, delivered a heartfelt speech. 'We did everything from curating shows to planting tomatoes with the director on the roof,' she recalled. 'Despite its growth, the Whitney has remained a family.' And just when it seemed the night had peaked, guests were treated to a surprise performance by TLC. As glasses were raised in tribute to the past decade—and in anticipation of the future—the energy in the room made it clear: the Whitney's doors aren't just wide open; they're paving the way for the next generation of American art. Scroll through below for a closer look inside.
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Amy Sherald's Blue Sky Vision for America
It has been Amy Sherald's fate to be known for one painting only. Her portrait of Michelle Obama, commissioned in 2018 by the National Portrait Gallery, brought the artist overnight fame. Ignoring the conventions of academic portraiture, a genre associated with pale men standing in front of burgundy drapes, Sherald liberated America's first lady from the fusty, cigar-brown rooms of the past. Obama, dressed in a sleeveless gown, leans forward in her chair, channeling Rodin's 'Thinker.' The background, a featureless expanse of powder blue, suggests fresh air. The painting is an anomaly in Sherald's oeuvre. 'Amy Sherald: American Sublime,' a compact and rousing retrospective of 42 paintings at the Whitney Museum of American Art, brings us the work of an artist who is not primarily a recorder of first ladies or famous faces. Rather, Sherald is a painter of one-frame short stories, of fictions that bestow recognition on people you would not recognize. She can be preachy, but her paintings are saved from sentimentality by an unerring sense of geometric design and a taste for spare, simplified, super-flat planes. Stepping off the elevator on the fifth floor of the museum, you find yourself contemplating a curved, rather amazing wall hung with five life-size portraits, each in a different sizzling color. 'The Girl Next Door' (2019), my favorite, shows a young woman in a white polka-dot dress, silhouetted against an emerald green background. Compared with the effortlessly attractive girl-next-door we know from countless films, Sherald has painted a touchingly awkward woman, her red leather belt rising up from her waist to her chest. But you can see that she is trying to look her best. Her immaculate dress, her red lipstick, her fixed-up hair with its attractive side part, are careful efforts at self-presentation that speak volumes about American girlhood. Sherald, who is 51, composes her scenes with extreme deliberation. She picks out models for her paintings and outfits them with costumes and props. She photographs them and works from her reference photographs to situate Black faces and figures into roles and settings complete with suburban lawns, white picket fences and other nostalgic symbols of American plenty. Here is a world in which it is usually summer, and days are squinty bright and shadowless. 'I'm an escapist,' Sherald once said in an interview. 'I love the Teletubbies — the idea of grass with no bugs makes me happy.' Her titles add another layer of fictional intrigue. Sometimes taken from novels or poems, they alternately heroicize her figures or gently poke fun at the human capacity for small, foolish, everyday self-deceptions. For instance, 'It Made Sense … Mostly in her Mind' (2011), shows a 30-ish woman dressed in a timeless navy blazer with gold buttons. She could be a lawyer until you notice she's wearing a lavender plastic helmet and holding an old-fashioned toy, a pink-and-white unicorn stick horse. It doesn't add up, but you can't say Sherald didn't warn us: The outfit did make sense … mostly in the subject's wishful and daydreamy mind. In some ways, Sherald's paintings are re-enactments of the childhood game of dress up. She is drawn to loud, retro-ish fabrics — to wide stripes and dresses imprinted with floral patterns or strewed with rows of strawberries or cherries or lemons. She excels at painting pleated skirts, their folds of fabric as stately and evenly spaced as ancient Greek columns. And note the exaggeratedly clean ambience. White shirts gleam with Tide-strength brightness, and khakis remain unblemished by mystery grease stains. You cannot find fresher clothing in the work of any contemporary painter, with the exception of Alex Katz, the pre-eminent realist, now in his 90s, who similarly garbs his figures in shirts and pants that look as if they were removed five minutes earlier from a J. Crew gift box. In the case of both artists, the squeaky-clean attire echoes in the formal neatness of their respective painting styles. In Sherald's case, at times I found myself searching in vain for any sign of an emphatic brush stroke, a trace of touch. This is especially true in a series of larger-than-life genre scenes that represent her more recent work. 'A God Blessed Land (Empire of Dirt),' from 2022, a mural-size painting stretching 11 feet wide, shows a man sitting atop a brand-new green tractor. What's problematic is that Sherald's instinct for pristine surfaces — which adds so much allure to her images of clothing — makes the tractor look as blandly commercial as an item in a mail-order catalog. The man could be sitting in a printed ad for a John Deere 820. Sherald's vertical portraits, by contrast, retain their pictorial charisma despite a certain repetitiveness. Nearly all of the portraits in the show, which go back to 2008, are exactly the same size (54 inches by 43 inches). The figures in her paintings, whether men, women or children, tend to have the same unblinking, inscrutable expression. They gaze at you alertly but noncommittedly, as if listening in silent judgment as you tell them a story that doesn't quite make sense. Born in Columbus, Ga., in 1973, Sherald majored in fine art at Clark Atlanta, a historically Black university. She moved to Baltimore to attend graduate school at the Maryland Institute College of Art, earning her M.F.A. in 2004. She has spoken openly about her health issues. She was just finishing graduate school when she was diagnosed with idiopathic cardiomyopathy, a serious heart condition. One day in 2012 she passed out in a Rite Aid pharmacy and woke up in a pool of blood. She was rushed to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she waited two months for a donor's heart and then underwent surgery for a heart transplant. Four years passed. In 2016, she rose to wide attention when she became the first woman and the first Black person to be awarded the grand prize in the National Portrait Gallery's prestigious Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, which is open to any artist in the United States. Her entry, 'Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance)' (2014), is a coolly charming portrait of a Black woman in a bold polka-dot dress. She holds, in her white-gloved hands, an impossibly large teacup and saucer, exemplifying Sherald's tendency to mingle realism and fantasy. 'Kingdom' (2022), for instance — one of the standouts of the show — is a low-angled, 10-foot-tall view of a schoolboy perched on the top rung of a playground slide, his spiky, stand-up hair silhouetted against a blue sky. In a sherpa-lined denim jacket, tan pants and unscuffed white sneakers, he could be any boy of 8 or 9, anyone's brother or son. Except that he occupies the pinnacle of the painting's Renaissance-style triangular composition, looming above us, a momentary king of the universe. Sublime or Not Sublime? So how should we categorize Sherald's style? 'American Sublime,' which was organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, has a baffling title. The word 'sublime,' an art-historical term, refers to art that inspires rapture or terror in a viewer, usually in response to the enormousness and grandeur of nature. When you open the Sherald exhibition catalog to Page 10 and see a full-page reproduction of Caspar David Friedrich's 'Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog' (1817), an icon of German romanticism that appeared in a show that just closed at the Met, you wonder if you picked up the wrong catalog. Sherald's work is not sublime, but in its emphasis on the transforming power of clothing, it can fairly be called 'superfine,' to borrow a word from the title of another Met show.` Sherald, it seems clear, is an American realist, recording ordinary people and pleasures. Her work is reminiscent of Norman Rockwell's illustrations for the covers of The Saturday Evening Post. He, too, combined and recombined reference photographs of his models to construct narratives of optimism and uplift about everyday Americans. One of Rockwell's acolytes, the painter Bo Bartlett, is a well-known realist, now 69, also from Columbus, Ga. Once, as a schoolgirl, Sherald saw a large-scale painting at the Columbus Museum that showed a Black man standing proudly outside a small brick house; it was painted by Bartlett, who is white. Sherald, who said she had never seen a painting of a Black person before, has described the moment as life changing, awakening her to how she wanted to spend her future. Even now, her genre scenes, especially 'A Midsummer Afternoon Dream' (2021), nod to Bartlett's luminous, blue-skied landscapes. Sherald also owes something to Horace Pippin, the pioneering, early-20th-century Black artist. In his 'Self-Portrait' (1941) at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, he rendered his face as a mask of gray monotone. Sherald similarly depicts the skin tones of her figures in neutral gray rather than in natural browns. She has said that she uses grayscale to sidestep the issue of racial categorization. Yet she does take on politics, especially in her 'Breonna Taylor' (2020), an ethereal turquoise-on-turquoise portrait of the 26-year-old medical worker who was killed in her own apartment in Louisville, Ky., in a botched police raid. 'American Sublime' will no doubt acquire a sharper political edge on Sept. 19, when it opens at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. The Portrait Gallery is part of the federally funded Smithsonian Institution and consequently vulnerable to recent orders from the executive branch seeking to dismantle or reshape programs that give off a whiff of diversity, equity or inclusion. The irony is that Sherald's work is not about categorizing one group or class of people. Rather it's about characterizing folks with visibly different lives, ranging from a schoolgirl in pig tails to a legless boxer resting against ropes of red, white and blue, to a tall, transgender woman in a hot-pink wig and high-slit dress posing as the Statue of Liberty. It is cliché these days to say that we want to 'feel seen' or validated, but here's the question: If we are all hoping to feel seen, who will be left to do the looking? Sherald, for one.
The Hill
10-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Arts and culture are also key tools of diplomacy
Amy Sherald's new exhibition, 'American Sublime,' recently opened at the Whitney Museum in New York City and will travel this fall to the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington. Sherald's famed portraits — powerful, dignified, and deeply rooted in identity and representation — remind us why the arts are a matter of great significance. They spark dialogue during times when honest conversations about race, identity, and history are most needed. In a time of shifting alliances and political uncertainty, freedom of artistic expression isn't just culturally relevant — it's a vital tool of soft power that can help build trust, foster dialogue, and extend U.S. influence in ways traditional diplomacy cannot. I know this from experience. When I was appointed U.S. ambassador to Portugal in 2022, I had not risen through the traditional ranks of the Foreign Service but came from a background steeped in the arts. Having served as a commissioner at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, I first met Sherald when she was chosen as a winner of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. This marked the beginning of my admiration for her work. Her portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama, a nuanced portrayal of both strength and grace, became a touchstone in contemporary portraiture, sparking dialogue among art critics, community leaders, and tourists alike. This fall, Sherald's exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery will mark a full-circle moment — a vivid reminder of how art bridges lives and legacies across time and space. When it came time to curate my Arts in Embassies exhibit during my tenure in Portugal, I knew Sherald's work had to be included. A State Department initiative founded under President Kennedy, the Arts in Embassies program places works by American and international artists in U.S. embassies worldwide, using visual arts as a powerful form of diplomacy. We curated a rotating collection in our residence that reflected our nation's diversity: Asian, African, Mexican, Jewish, and women artists, to name a few – all represented in a shared space. And, of course, Portuguese artists, highlighting the dialogue between our two countries. These important, creative works sparked conversation at every gathering — about identity, storytelling, creativity, and freedom. The walls of the Ambassador's residence became more than décor — they became a living exhibition of the values our nations share, and the essential conversations we must have. Witnessing the success of this exhibit, we continued using arts and culture as tools to connect communities, open dialogue, and strengthen mutual understanding throughout my ambassadorship. These varied initiatives — targeted in scale but powerful in impact — built bridges across communities that traditional diplomacy is often unable to reach. When used properly, cultural diplomacy strengthens national security. When I first arrived in Portugal, after COVID and the absence of an ambassador for 16 months, China had taken over the public discourse in the media on issues like freedom of speech, women's rights, and the rule of law. Part of my strategy for deploying a cultural diplomacy program was to take back the narrative and use the public forum to put forward our American values — to fill that space and prevent bad actors from enhancing their public influence. Now, upon returning home, the shifting political landscape has underscored the importance of applying these tools in the U.S. As the current administration enacts new policies that shift our transatlantic ties, using the arts as a tool of diplomacy isn't just symbolic — it's strategic. Sharing our patchwork of cultures and ideas through creative expression can aid us greatly in building people-to-people ties worldwide. Policymakers must keep funding cultural diplomacy initiatives. Artists must keep creating. And to the public, go see Sherald's exhibit at the Whitney. Beyond being a stunning display of an individual's talent, it's a reminder of the powerful role art can play in shaping our nation's future. Randi Charno Levine is a diplomat, arts advocate, and author who served as the U.S. ambassador to Portugal from April 2022, to January 2025.
Dominion Post
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
Bredeson sparks rally, MHS captures OVAC baseball title
CADIZ, Ohio — Just when it appeared Wheeling Park was headed for a third straight win over Morgantown this season, the Mohigans pulled a victory from the jaws of defeat. Jackson Bredeson's bases-loaded double with two outs in the top of the seventh sparked a four-run outburst as the Mohigans (16-8) rallied for a 4-2 triumph in the OVAC Class 5A championship game at Mazeroski Field. The come-from-win allowed Morgantown to defend their title. 'Obviously, those two games were regular season but any time you get a chance to win a championship it's a different type of game,' Morgantown head coach Pat Sherald said. 'I just complimented the guys for their maturity and poise. They brought a ton of energy today. 'I have not questioned their focus in one game this season,' he said. 'They went out and had some quality at bats with nothing to show for it. But they stayed in the fight the whole time.' The Patriots, who owned a pair of regular-season victories over the Mohigans, scored single runs in the first and second innings as they tagged Lucas Shinn for six hits. However, the junior retired 13 batters in a row from the last out of the second through the sixth to keep the Mohigans close. 'He really didn't have his best stuff today, but he found a way to pitch and not just throw,' Sherald added. With one out in the seventh, Kai Henkins and Elijah Boggs drew consecutive walks from Wheeling Park's Ryland Robb. Wheeling Park head coach Steve Myers brought in freshman Jaxon Updegraff who hit Ryan Nipper to load the bases. A fielder's choice by Weston Mazey made it 2-1 but another base-on-balls to Mason Bowers re-loaded the bags. Bredeson turned on an 0-1 pitch, driving it to the fence in right-center as all three runners scored. 'That was a huge hit for a freshman in that spot,' Sherald said. Wheeling Park put a pair of runners on in the bottom of the seventh, but Judd Messerly relieved Shinn with one out and retired the two batters he faced to earn the save. Shinn threw 99 pitches and drew praise from both head coaches. 'I thought both pitchers pitched really good games,' Wheeling Park head coach Steve Myers said. 'It was a good baseball game. They got the big hit when they needed it. The Patriots got their runs on a run-scoring single by Rocco Digiandomenico in the first and an RBI single from Kolten Whitmire in the second. However, they didn't record another hit. 'If we're playing good baseball and they are playing good baseball, then we'll probably meet each other again this year,' Sherald added. Whitmire and Updegraff had two singles each for Wheeling Park. Shinn struck out four and walked two. Robb fanned six and issued three free passes. — Story by Kim North Morgantown 4, Wheeling Park 2 Morgan 000 000 4 — 4 4 1 W. Park 110 000 0 — 2 6 2 M—Shinn wp (4K, 2BB), Messerly sv (7), (0K, 0BB) and Joseph; Bredeson D, 3rbi; Mazey rbi WP—Robb (6K, 3BB), Updegraff lp (7), (0K, 1BB) and Yanchak; Whitmire 2S, rbi; Updegraff 2S; Digiandomenico S, rbi
