If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it 2019

Amy Sherald made “If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it” with oil paint, carefully building the scene layer by layer. I can imagine her, standing back, squinting, and mixing up those cool blues and greens, trying to get just the right flatness. It’s a painting about being suspended, both literally and metaphorically. What does it mean to perch so precariously? The artist's choice to paint the figure’s skin in grayscale draws us to the person’s inner life. How does she want us to see this character? What is he thinking? Sherald's work always strikes a balance between realism and something more dreamlike and symbolic. You see echoes of artists like Alice Neel and Barkley L. Hendricks, who also found ways to capture the humanity of their subjects. Ultimately, painting is a conversation between artists across time, a shared exploration of what it means to be seen, and to see.