In a Monday, Feb. 12, 2018, ceremony, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery museum unveiled its portraits of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.
It is the first time in history the museum commissioned African-American artists to paint a president and his wife. The Washington, D.C.-based museum unveiled the paintings in the ceremony attended by both the president and first lady as well as the two artists, one of which is a Clark Atlanta University graduate and a Spelman College International Artist-in-Residence.
Amy Sherald, who lives in Baltimore, received her bachelor’s in painting from CAU in 1997 and became an artist-in-residence at Spelman’s Portobelo, Panama, Summer Art Colony the same year.
For more on the Obamas portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, see: Obama portraits.
For more on Sherald and her work, visit: about Amy Sherald.
