Obama Foundation Announces Final Group of Commissioned Artists for Campus
The Obama Presidential Center expands its art program with its final artist announcement before opening June 19, bringing together world-renowned and emerging artists whose practices reflect the Obamas’ commitment to public art
April 9, 2026 at 9:00 AM CDT
Chicago — The Obama Foundation today announced the final group of major artist commissions for the Obama Presidential Center in advance of the June 19 opening in Chicago. Njideka Akunyili Crosby, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Jeffrey Gibson, Rashid Johnson, Hugo McCloud, Martin Puryear, Lorna Simpson, and Norman Teague are creating major site-specific works for the campus, joining a growing roster of artists whose work is central to the Center’s vision of civic engagement.
“From the very beginning, we imagined the Obama Presidential Center as a place where art would deepen our visitors’ curiosity and inspiration. These extraordinary artists bring forward different stories, perspectives, and styles that reflect the richness of our shared values,” said Valerie Jarrett, CEO of The Obama Foundation. “Their works will invite every visitor to see themselves as part of something bigger than themselves, and inspire them to bring change home.”
Spanning the full breadth of the campus, the new commissions place art within spaces where people gather, commune, and connect, embedding a wide range of cultural traditions and materials into the fabric of everyday life at the Center. The artists bring together Indigenous drum-making, Afro-Asian Cuban symbolism, conceptual photography, industrial materials, historic ephemera, and locally rooted inclusive design, united by a shared investment in place, memory, and community.
Opening this June, the Obama Presidential Center will celebrate the legacy of President and Mrs. Obama and their belief that ordinary people working together can accomplish extraordinary things. The 19.3-acre campus will include a museum, public library, fruit and vegetable garden, athletic center, programming facilities, and expansive outdoor spaces designed to welcome everyone, from local neighbors to visitors from around the world.
“These latest artists join 22 previously announced distinguished practitioners - and as a collective, they showcase the depth and breadth of President and Mrs. Obama’s commitment to public art and artists whose practices illuminate the complexities of place, identity, and belonging,” said Dr. Louise Bernard, Founding Director of the Obama Presidential Center Museum. “Their contributions will anchor the Center in a vibrant artistic legacy that speaks to the values President and Mrs. Obama championed: openness, engagement, and a profound respect for the diverse stories that shape our nation. Each artist brings a distinct voice and practice that transforms our public spaces into places of reflection, joy, and connection.”
Highlights include:
Njideka Akunyili Crosby – the first portrait of President and Mrs. Obama weaves together archival imagery, family albums, historical ephemera, and cultural touchstones. This densely layered work and its precise biographical details simultaneously honor and connect the Obamas’ lasting legacy to the many generations of artists, activists, citizens, and leaders whose collective journeys helped pave their way to the White House and sustained them through two terms. The work will be exhibited in the Main Lobby of the Museum.
María Magdalena Campos-Pons – Still Holding the Scent of Flowers , a mixed-media installation of the White House Rose Garden, near the replica of the Oval Office in the Museum exhibits. The work weaves roses, tulips, magnolias, pink and blue hyacinths, carrots, broccoli, herbs, and apple tree blossoms into a meditation on the American landscape, drawing on the history of the garden and Mrs. Obama’s focus on healthy eating. Campos-Pons’ interpretation of the White House Rose Garden is inscribed in bloom forever as a symbol of memory, renewal, diversity, and hope.
Jeffrey Gibson – Yet With a Steady Beat , is a wall installation featuring 17 circular prints that reference Gibson’s use of political buttons and drums, which are recurring elements in his interdisciplinary practice. Each 18-inch-diameter print incorporates imagery and messages drawn from political and social movements, as well as music and popular culture, and is installed directly atop wallpaper digitally printed with colored bands, designed by the artist. Working across painting, installation, video, and performance, Gibson often engages Native American hand-drums, which he views as a means of summoning power, calling forward ancestors, and sending intentional vibrations into the world. In his practice, drum playing becomes a call for collective gathering—an expression of community and shared history that resonates throughout the OPC installation, which reflects the voices and experiences that have come to define American culture.
Rashid Johnson – Broken Men , a large-scale mosaic in the Teaching Kitchen drawn from Johnson’s ongoing series of the same name, renders the multifaceted and complicated nature of lived experience through abstract figures whose ambiguous, wide-eyed expressions invite viewers to contemplate the universal resonance within the human condition.
Hugo McCloud – Hidden Reflection , a painting in the Private Dining Room of the Center’s restaurant, traces significant locations in President Obama’s life, imbuing the power of place with biographical meaning. Working with his signature single-use plastic and oil paint, McCloud’s serene composition is manifold – the canvas is layered with overtures to geospatial mapping while it gestures to the sensorial underpinnings of memory, the ineffable qualities of time, and how such elements mold a person’s experience. The artist’s abstract use of shadow thereby mirrors the idea of self-reflexivity, a story always in the process of unfolding.
Martin Puryear – Puryear's monumental sculpture on the John Lewis Plaza is inspired by this quotation, “we shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. and carried forward by John Lewis. The artist believes that the arc of the moral universe does not bend toward justice by itself, but only when it is moved by men and women of good will. Puryear created the sculpture (Bending the Arc) by hand-carving a straight, 34-foot long wooden beam. It was 3D scanned, then enlarged and curved digitally, before reaching its final form in stainless steel. This work pays homage to John Lewis, who believed that the work of justice requires an uncompromising vision, consistent effort, and courageous action.
Lorna Simpson – Durative , part of Simpson’s ongoing “Ice” series depicting painted icescapes set against an expansive sky, will go on view in the Seminar Room of the Presidential Suite. Simpson layered silkscreened images of glaciers and smoke, dripping indigo acrylic onto fiberglass into an engrossing vision of an icy world most humans have only seen in photographs. Integrated within the architecture of the room, the work creates a quiet dialogue between the intimacy of a domestic interior and the boundlessness of the landscape.
Norman Teague – A series of eight inclusively designed wooden benches in the Museum exhibits represent an offering to the artist’s South Side roots. Carved from solid walnut in tones ranging from deep chocolate to warm amber, the wood glows with vitality, the varied unpredictability of its grain reflecting the rich diversity of Black heritage. These beautifully crafted, fluid forms highlight the signature functionality of Teague’s work – at once aesthetically refined and harmonious.
From its inception, the Obama Presidential Center envisioned the arts as a core part of its mission. This commitment builds upon the legacy that President and Mrs. Obama instilled at the White House, making it the “People’s House” by opening its doors to diverse voices, disciplines, and perspectives. The commissioned art collection at the Center will carry this ethos forward, amplifying its impact through vibrant public arts programming that brings the collection to life in dynamic and accessible ways. Through performances, workshops, talks, and partnerships, this programming will engage the public, inspire creativity, and spark meaningful dialogue—ensuring that the collection remains at the heart of the visitor experience and a catalyst for community connection.
These commissions join previously announced works by Lindsay Adams, Mark Bradford, Tyanna J. Buie, Nekisha Durrett, Spencer Finch, Theaster Gates, Jay Heikes, Jenny Holzer, Richard Hunt, Jules Julien, Idris Khan, Maya Lin, Julie Mehretu, Aliza Nisenbaum, Jack Pierson, Alison Saar, Kiki Smith, Carrie Mae Weems, and collaborations between Nick Cave and Marie Watt, and Sam Kirk and Dorian Sylvain. Together they expand the Center’s mission to weave art into civic life, reflecting the Obamas’ longstanding commitment to public art. More information about the full scope of the Center’s commissioned art offerings can be found at obama.org .
The artist commissions are curated by Virginia Shore, Curator of the Obama Presidential Center Art Commissions at Shore Art Advisory LLC.
About the Obama Foundation:
The Obama Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world. That mission begins on the South Side of Chicago, where the Foundation is building the Obama Presidential Center. The Obama Presidential Center represents a historic opportunity for Chicago: a chance to build a world-class museum and public gathering space that celebrates our nation’s first African American President and First Lady, steps away from where he began his career, where she was raised, and where—together—they made their home. Not only will The Center generate billions of dollars of economic opportunity and help reconnect and revitalize Jackson Park, it will also serve as a reminder to young visitors—from around the city and from around the world—that their potential is limitless.
See additional information about each of the artists below:
Njideka Akunyili Crosby , a 2017 MacArthur Fellow, combines painted depictions of people, places, and subjects from her life with photographic transfers derived from her personal image archives and mass media sources, in her methodically layered compositions. The resulting works are visual tapestries that vivify the personal and social dimensions of contemporary life while evocatively expressing the intricacies of African diasporic identity. Akunyili Crosby was born in Enugu, Nigeria, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She was a participant in La Biennale di Venezia, 58th International Art Exhibition, May You Live In Interesting Times, curated by Ralph Rugoff in 2019. Akunyili Crosby’s work is held in significant museum collections throughout the world.
María Magdalena Campos-Pons is a Cuban-American multidisciplinary artist based in Nashville, Tennessee, whose practice spans photography, performance, painting, video, and sculpture. Born in 1959 in Matanzas, Cuba, her work weaves together personal and collective histories, drawing on the Afro-Cuban, Chinese, and Hispanic heritage that shaped her upbringing. She is the Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Fine Arts at Vanderbilt University and a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Her work is held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.
Jeffrey Gibson is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and convener celebrated for his work in painting, installation, video, and performance. For over two decades, he has examined how language, pattern, and music construct meaning, synthesizing Indigenous and Western traditions through vibrant color, complex patterning, and layered sound. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson represented the U.S. at the 2024 Venice Biennale with his acclaimed exhibition the space in which to place me , which made its U.S. debut at The Broad in Los Angeles in May 2025. In June 2025, he unveiled a site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zurich. Gibson was selected for the Metropolitan Museum’s 2025 Genesis Facade Commission, and his monumental bronze sculptures will be on view through June 2026. His work is held in major collections including MoMA, the Whitney, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the National Gallery of Art. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley and is artist-in-residence at Bard College.
Rashid Johnson is a Chicago-born artist who works across sculpture, painting, photography, film, and installation. Drawing on a wide range of materials and cultural references, Johnson’s practice explores themes of Black identity, history, and intellectual life. He first gained critical attention in 2001 with his inclusion in Freestyle , the landmark exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem that introduced a generation of emerging Black artists. Since then, Johnson has developed a multidisciplinary body of work that incorporates distinctive materials that reflect on personal and collective histories. His work is held in the permanent collections of major institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
Hugo McCloud is a self-taught artist with a background in industrial design. His work is inspired by both urban landscapes and bucolic settings, his personal travels, and socio-political themes tied to the geographic specificity of labor, migration, and environmental impact. McCloud creates paintings across a range of scales, employing unconventional materials such as single-use plastic bags, liquid tar, and aluminum sheeting, combined with the intricacies of oil paint. He similarly moves between figuration and abstraction as he seeks to find and elevate beauty in the every day. His work is held in the permanent collections of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Brooklyn Museum, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, and the FENIX Museum of Migration in Rotterdam, among others.
Martin Puryear is an American artist known for his devotion to traditional craft. Working in wood and bronze, among other media, his reductive technique and meditative approach challenges the physical and poetic boundaries of his materials. Puryear received a National Medal of Arts from President Obama in 2012 and represented the U.S. at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Lorna Simpson is a pioneering American artist born in Brooklyn in 1960 whose practice encompasses photography, film, video, painting, and sculpture. She rose to prominence in the early 1990s with large-scale photo-text works that challenged narrow representations of gender, race, and identity, and in 1990 became one of the first African American women to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. Most recently, her painting practice was the subject of Source Notes , a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Third Person , currently exhibiting at Punta della Dogana in Venice, Italy. She is a recipient of the J. Paul Getty Medal and her work has been the subject of solo presentations at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.
Norman Teague is a Chicago-based designer, artist, and assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Design whose practice uses design as a vehicle for community empowerment and cultural storytelling. Born and raised on Chicago's South Side, Teague creates furniture, public sculpture, and designed objects that blend contemporary aesthetics with African-inflected form and locally sourced materials. He holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Illinois Chicago. His work is held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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Contact:
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Kate Morais, opc@suttoncomms.com