Amy Sherald's trans Statue of Liberty heads to Baltimore after Smithsonian controversy

A painting of a transgender Statue of Liberty will appear in Baltimore after the cancellation of an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

Artist Amy Sherald, who canceled her “American Sublime” exhibition at the Smithsonian in July over alleged censorship, will instead show her work at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA). The BMA exhibition will run from November 2 to April 5 and feature 40 portraits, including the controversial Trans Forming Liberty, which depicts Lady Liberty as a Black trans woman.

'Trans Forming Liberty' by artist Amy Sherald coming to Baltimore Museum of ArtOriginal Art by Amy Sherald, photographed by Kelvin Bulluck, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

“Baltimore has always been part of my DNA as an artist,” Sherald said in a statement released by the BMA. “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.”

Sherald pulled out of the planned Washington, D.C., exhibition after the Smithsonian approached her about removing Trans Forming Liberty from the show, according to documents obtained by The New York Times in July.

One of those documents was a letter that the artist sent to the secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie G. Bunch III, regarding her decision. “I entered into this collaboration in good faith, believing that the institution shared a commitment to presenting work that reflects the full, complex truth of American life,” Sherald wrote. “Unfortunately, it has become clear that the conditions no longer support the integrity of the work as conceived.”

The news of the show’s cancellation came amid what’s been ongoing pressure on the Smithsonian from the Republican Party to limit or remove LGBTQ+ programming — pressure that many sources believe the cultural institution has buckled under.

Amy Sherald's 'A Midsummer Afternoon Dream', 2020 and 'For Love, and for Country', 2022Original Art by Amy Sherald, photographed by Kelvin Bulluck, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Last year, following Bunch’s appearance at a House Administration Committee hearing in December 2023, an investigation by The New Republic found that the annual drag events hosted by the Smithsonian Pride Alliance had not been scheduled for 2024. And this May, the Smithsonian Museum of African Art abruptly postponed an exhibition of LGBTQ+ artists originally scheduled to coincide with WorldPride, which many believed was a response to funding cuts.

Meanwhile, the Trump White House as recently as last month continued to rail against so-called “woke” content at the Smithsonian, citing portraits depicting immigrants crossing the border, a series aimed at educating people on white privilege, and an American History Museum exhibit on the evolution and intersection of LGBTQ+ identities.