<p>This week, we explore the controversy surrounding Amy Sherald’s painting <em>Trans Forming Liberty</em>, which depicts a Black trans woman posing as the Statue of Liberty.</p><br><p>In the summer of 2025, Amy Sherald canceled her highly anticipated and historic exhibition, <em>American Sublime</em>, at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery after Sherald said she faced pressure from museum officials to remove <em>Trans Forming Liberty</em> and show a video of it instead.</p><br><p>Rather than compromise, Sherald pulled the show and brought <em>American Sublime</em> to the Baltimore Museum of Art, where it became the museum’s most attended exhibition since 2000, drawing more than 80,000 visitors.</p><br><p>Explaining her decision, Sherald said, “The video would have opened up for debate the value of trans visibility, and I was opposed to that being a part of the <em>American Sublime</em> narrative.”</p><br><p>First, we hear from Grace Byron, an art critic who wrote about the chilling effect of Trump’s anti-trans executive orders on trans artists in a piece for the <em>New Yorker </em>called “The War on Trans Art.”&nbsp;</p><br><p>Then, we hear from the model depicted in <em>Trans Forming Liberty</em>, Arewà Basit, who is also an artist herself.</p><br><p>This week’s Trans Joy features Gericault De La Rose, a Chicago-based artist.</p><p>Send your Trans Joy recommendations to translash_podcast @ translash [dot] org&nbsp;</p><br><p>Follow TransLash Media @translashmedia on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@translashmedia?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TikTok</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/translashmedia/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.threads.net/@translashmedia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Threads</a>, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/translash.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bluesky</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/translashmedia/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.</p><p>Follow Imara Jones on Instagram (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/imara_jones_/?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@Imara_jones_</a>), Threads (@<a href="https://www.threads.net/@imara_jones_" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">imara_jones_</a>), Bluesky (@<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/imarajones.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">imarajones.bsky.social</a>), X (<a href="https://twitter.com/imarajones?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@ImaraJones</a>)</p><br><p>Follow Grace Byron on social media (@emotrophywife)</p><p>Follow Arewà Basit on Instagram (@arewabasit)</p><p>Follow Gericault De La Rose on Instagram (@im.ubae)</p><br><p><br></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>