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

Amy Sherald made this painting, "Listen, you a wonder. you a city of a woman. you got a geography of your own," using a very specific approach to color and figure-ground relationships. The way she simplifies and flattens the forms emphasizes process; she is reminding us that it is constructed rather than real. There is such intriguing interplay in this piece. The background is a flat, soft blue that pushes the figure forward, but the grayscale skin tones complicate this relationship. Sherald gives us enough information, especially in the details of the dress and hat, to create a sense of depth and texture. The dress, patterned with bold floral motifs, is rendered with crisp lines. It makes me think about someone like Barkley L. Hendricks, who similarly played with figure-ground ambiguity but with a hyperrealist twist. Sherald invites us to consider identity, representation, and the very act of seeing. What does it mean to portray someone, and what stories do we project onto these painted surfaces? It is a puzzle, a proposition, and, like any good painting, resists easy answers.