“I want my portraits,” explains the American artist Amy Sherald, “to create a space where blackness can breathe.” Sherald creates social portraits from staged photographs, painting stylized figures against bold backdrops as they sit, lounge, and hang out. Though her subjects are often Black, she paints skin tones in gray scale, encouraging viewers to re-evaluate the complexities of race and representation. Sherald became widely known in 2018, when she painted Michelle Obama’s portrait. Seated against a baby blue background, Obama wore a black-and-white gown with pops of pink and yellow, her nails polished periwinkle. Here was a modern, even mod, First Lady. In this exhibition, Sherald’s first solo show in Europe, small- and large-scale paintings fill the gallery’s London spaces. —Elena Clavarino