The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to America in 1884. Now more than 140 years later, a painting that reimagines Lady Liberty as a Black trans woman is turning out to be a different sort of artistic gift, with a little help from Donald Trump.Trans Forming Liberty is the title of a 2024 painting by the renowned artist Amy Sherald, who is known for her stylized portraits of African-Americans. Sherald drew national attention in 2018, when she painted former First Lady Michelle Obamas official portrait. Arewa Basit, a Black transgender performance artist, was the model for her depiction of Lady Liberty, who is shown in a blue gown and pink bob, holding up a bouquet of flowers in lieu of a torch. Related Trump administration cracks down on content at Smithsonian Institution The result is one of the most-discussed pieces in Amy Sherald: American Sublime, a mid-career retrospective that has been touring the country since last fall, featuring approximately 40 paintings completed between 2007 and 2024.Sherald will receive the Human Rights Campaigns Ally for Equality Award for her work and advocacy at its sold-out National Dinner in Washington on September 13 at the Washington Hilton. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today After successful stops at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in California and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, American Sublime was supposed to open on September 19 at the National Portrait Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. C. It was to be the third and final stop for the exhibit, the most comprehensive presentation of her work to date.But Sherald cancelled the show in July due to concerns about censorship. She has said she learned that museum officials were considering removing Trans Forming Liberty from the exhibit because they wanted to avoid provoking the Trump administration, since the federal government provides the bulk of the Smithsonians budget. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A M Y S H E R A L D (@asherald) President Donald Trump and his appointees have been exercising control over what can and cant be presented at the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center and other federally-operated venues, such as National Park Service properties. Theyve targeted works that they consider woke or examples of a DEI agenda, and Sheralds painting, with its twist on Liberty Enlightening the World, was on their hit list of 26 artworks and shows depicting queer, trans and migrant experiences that they believe convey divisive narratives.In a statement, Sherald said she was informed by the National Portrait Gallery that concerns had been raised internally about the painting. These concerns led to discussions about removing the work from the exhibition, she said. While no single person is to blame, it is clear that institutional fear shaped by a broader climate of political hostility toward trans lives played a role. A Smithsonian spokespersonlater said it was a misunderstanding and that the museum never intended to remove the painting from the exhibit. The representative said the museum only wanted to contextualize it by adding a video showing people reacting to the painting and discussing trans rights. That didnt help as far as Sherald was concerned. 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 toldThe New York Times.Her painting has since appeared on the cover ofThe New Yorker.I cannot in good conscience comply with a culture of censorship, especially when it targets vulnerable communities, she said in a statement about canceling the show. At a time when transgender people are being legislated against, silenced, and endangered across our nation, silence is not an option. I stand by my work. I stand by my sitters. I stand by the truth that all people deserve to be seen not only in life, but in art.Sherald said in a letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III that she agreed to collaborate with the museum in good faith, believing that the institution shared a commitment to presenting work that reflects the full, complex truth of American life. Unfortunately, it has become clear that the conditions no longer support the integrity of the work as conceived. The Smithsonian dispute is part of a larger trend of censorship, postponement, and alteration of exhibitions featuring LGBTQ+ art and themes since Trump began his second term in January. Yanking the exhibit was a momentous decision for the artist, given the prestigious setting and the exposure it would have brought her. She would have been the first contemporary Black artist to have a solo show at the National Portrait Gallery.This month Sherald found a new home for her show. On September 3, directors of the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announced that their museum will present American Sublime for five months, from November 2 to April 5, 2026. That will make Baltimore the previously-unscheduled third and final stop for Sheralds show, and it promises to be a blockbuster for the city and the museum.Ive had the great pleasure and joy of knowing Amy Sherald for a decade, Asma Naeem, the BMAs Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director, said in the announcement. In that time, she has become a cultural force, capturing the public imagination through works that are powerful and resonant in their profound humanity. Were thrilled to share her transformational work with our visitors. Now 52, the survivor of a heart transplant in 2012, Sherald works primarily as a portraitist depicting African-Americans in everyday settings. Her style is simplified realism, involving staged photographs of her subjects.Since 2012, she has used grisaille to portray skin tones, a painting technique that employs monochromatic shades of gray, or sometimes brown, to create the illusion of three-dimensional forms. For her, its a way of challenging conventions about skin color and race. Another well-known work of hers is a 2020 portrait of Breonna Taylor, a woman who was killed by police while sleeping in her home in Louisville, Kentucky. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mike Monteiro (@mikemonteiro)Forty-three miles north of the National Portrait Gallery, the BMA is a logical setting for Sheralds show for several reasons.First, the BMA isnt going to censor Sheralds work the way she feared the Smithsonian might. None of the BMAs budget comes from the federal government at present. Its under no Trumpian mandate to censor artists work, and it has no record of doing so.The museum has a long history of presenting the works of LGBTQ+ artists and patrons and exploring LGBTQ+ themes. Its the home of the Cone Collection, amassed by sisters Claribel and Etta Cone, the latter of whom had a romantic relationship with lesbian novelist and poet Gertrude Stein. It has shown the work of Mickalene Thomas; Mark Bradford; Elle Perez; Raul de Nieves and other LGBTQ+ artists in recent years. It named its all-gender restrooms after gay filmmaker, visual artist, and hometown hero John Waters, whos on the museums board of trustees. Actress and transgender activist Elizabeth Coffey flushed the first flush when The John Waters Restrooms were dedicated. If any art institution has provided a haven for LGBTQ+ subjects, with a sense of humor, its the BMA.The museum already has a relationship with Sherald. She joined its board in 2018 but stepped down in 2020 amid controversy related to its planned sales of paintings by Brice Marden, Clyfford Still, and Andy Warhol, a divestment that never went through. The museum owns one of her paintings, Planes, Rockets, and the Spaces in Between (2018), and has featured her work in group shows. This will be her first solo exhibit there. View this post on Instagram A post shared by (@chetarek_)Perhaps most importantly, Sherald has a close relationship with the city of Baltimore. Born in Columbus, Georgia, and now based in New York City, she earned a Bachelors degree in painting from Clark-Atlanta University and then moved to Baltimore to get her MFA degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She continued to live and work in Baltimore after college for more than a decade, formative years during which she launched her career and started getting widespread attention in the art world.Sherald has a billboard-sized mural entitled Equilibrium on one side of the Parkway Theater on North Avenue, one of Baltimores main boulevards. It depicts a woman balancing on a tightrope, dangling a heart-shaped locket from one hand. Many of the subjects of her portraits are Baltimore residents who sat for her when she had a studio there.Baltimore has always been part of my DNA as an artist, Sherald said in a statement about moving the show. Every brushstroke carries a little of its history, its energy, its people, and my time there. To bring this exhibition here is to return that love. View this post on Instagram A post shared by PL Henderson (@womensart1)Sherald was the first woman and first African American to receive the grand prize in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition from the National Portrait Gallery. In 2018, the year that Obamas portrait was unveiled, Sherald was awarded the Pollock Prize for Creativity by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the David C. Driskell Prize from the High Museum of Art.In addition to the BMA, her work is held in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Nasher Museum of Art in Durham, N.C.; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.; the National Portrait Gallery; and the Whitney Museum of American Art.With the exception of her commissioned portraits of Obama and Taylor, the artist selects each subject based on her observations of their inherent qualities, such as poise, style or wit what she calls their ineffable spark.During photoshoots, Sherald lets her models pose organically, allowing for the synergy to build between them so that she can authentically capture their essence, the BMA said in its announcement. She then curates each scene and styles the subjects in clothing that speaks to the narrative she wishes to craft, creating a sense of magical realism. For the titles of her paintings, Sherald often draws inspiration from Black women writers and poets like Toni Morrison and Lucille Clifton, reinterpreting their poetry to develop different contexts around the interior worlds of her subjects, the BMA added. Through her explorations, Sherald redefines common beliefs about American identity, weaving a broader visual story of history and belonging.The BMA is treating the exhibit as a homecoming for the artist and rolling out the proverbial red carpet for her. Besides presenting American Sublime, its giving her one of its Artists Who Inspire awards during its 2025 BMA Ball & After Party on November 22 a decision made before she announced plans to move her show to Baltimore.Besides Trans Forming Liberty and the portraits of Obama and Taylor, highlights of American Sublime include Sheralds Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition-winning painting,Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance), and the triptychEcclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons), created for this exhibition. It also includes For love, and for country, her 2022 reimagined same-sex take on photographer Alfred Eisenstaedts famous VJ-Day Kiss photo, first published in Life magazine in 1945. View this post on Instagram A post shared by PL Henderson (@womensart1) From foundational early works to some of her most iconic and recognizable paintings and rarely seen examples,American Sublimecaptures the power and poignancy of Sheralds artistry and traces her ascendance as one of the most influential figurative painters of our time, the BMA said in its announcement.How did the BMA land Sheralds show? After word got out the that artist canceled the exhibit in Washington, the BMA contacted her to see if she would bring it to Baltimore. Naeem was a curator at the National Portrait Gallery before coming to Baltimore and admired her work. The BMA offered prime space on the second floor of its contemporary wing, and was prepared to present American Sublime for the same number of months and in roughly the same time frame as the Washington exhibit.Baltimore is the ideal place to present Sheralds work, Naeem said.Beyond her education and time lived in our beloved city, Baltimore is rooted in her subjects, on her canvases, and in her titles. PresentingAmerican Sublimeat the BMA is a celebration of our creative community and a joyful reunion with those shaped by Amys extraordinary power to connect. Censorship is out of the question, Naeem told The Baltimore Sun.We are doing what we always do, which is to present an exhibition of an artist at the peak of her powers, she said. Trans Forming Liberty is just one painting among 40 glorious portraits that represent a wide swath of humanity. Our role is to speak to a diverse range of narratives.Sherald is clearly upbeat about the new location. After the BMA show was announced, she posted a video on Instagram in which she starts, Hey Baltimore, and invites viewers to see her show.You asked for it, she says in the video. We listened. Were pulling up. Were bringing Sublime to Charm City. Get your calendars ready. Call your mama. Call your cousin. Get your edges ready. Its about to go down. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Susan Washington | Abstract Paintings (@susanwashingtonart)A sign of the museums keen interest in accommodating Sherald is the pace at which the show has come together. Museums such as the BMA typically schedule exhibits years in advance, to give curators time to borrow key works and make other arrangements. In this case, the paintings were already lined up for a multi-city tour and the accompanying catalog has been printed. Still, this leg of the show is taking shape in record time. Sherald canceled the Washington show on July 24 and reached agreement with the BMA on September 2. According to BMA Senior Director of Communications Anne Mannix Brown, its happening at warp speed.American Sublimeis organized by SFMOMA and curated by Sarah Roberts, the museums former Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture. At the BMA, it will be a special ticketed exhibition organized by Naeem with Cecilia Wichmann, Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art; Antoinette Roberts, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art; and Dylan Kaleikaumaka Hill, Meyerhoff-Becker Curatorial Fellow.The catalog, also entitledAmy Sherald: American Sublime, is the artists first comprehensive monograph, showing the broad sweep of her painting practice as well as her influences and inspirations. Contributors include Roberts, the exhibition curator, Elizabeth Alexander, Dario Calmese and Rhea Combs.Its published by SFMOMA in association with Yale University Press. Tickets forAmy Sherald: American Sublime will go on sale October 1 for BMA members and October 8 for the general public. Prices are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, $14 for groups of seven or more, and $10 for students with ID. BMA members, individuals ages 17 and under, and student groups are admitted for free. Free admission is also available on Thursdays from 5 to 9 p.m., and on opening day, November 2, as well as all day on January 15, and February 19.The announcement about the new location comes, ironically, just as Trump has been bashing Baltimore and its leaders. Hes called the city a hellhole and a deathbed and threatened to send in the National Guard to curtail crime. Hes also threatened to take away federal funds needed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was struck by a container ship and collapsed in March of 2024 money that was allocated in the closing days of the Biden administration.In a sense, prompting Sherald to move her show, albeit indirectly, is one of the only ways Trump has done anything helpful to Baltimore since he began his second term as president. Sheralds show promises to bring positive national attention and visitors to the city. Its the sort of event that will get people to become museum members or renew lapsed memberships. It will help solidify the museums reputation as a welcoming, censorship-free venue for art. Thats what Sherald wanted when she agreed to bring her show to the National Portrait Gallery the liberty to present works such as Trans Forming Liberty on her terms, without any spin or censorship from curators.It became clear during my exchanges with the [National Portrait Gallery] how quickly curatorial independence collapses when politics enters the room, she wrote in an essay for MSNBC. When governments police museums, they are not simply policing exhibitions. They are policing imagination itself.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.