Listen, you a wonder. you a city of a woman. you got a geography of your own 2016

Amy Sherald created this painting, “Listen, you a wonder. you a city of a woman. you got a geography of your own,” with oils in her signature figurative style. That title gets me thinking. A city of a woman! With geographies all its own. The phrase is a love poem, maybe to painting itself, or to the experience of being in and embodying the world, or to being a painter… I can imagine Sherald layering the paint, finding her way through the balance of figure and ground. The sienna skin tones against the flat light-blue background create such a stark contrast! The black flowers on her dress seem to hover, bold and graphic, against the neutral ground. She renders the figure with such careful precision, yet flattens the color to emphasize a kind of iconic presence. This piece reminds me of the work of Barkley L. Hendricks, where portraiture is equally about the person and the painting itself. These artists show us how the intimate act of painting can open up conversations about identity, representation, and the sheer pleasure of looking.