Obama Presidential Center Finalizes Art Program for Chicago Campus
When the Obama Presidential Center opens on June 19 on Chicago’s South Side, visitors will encounter art not as decoration, but as part of the campus’s architecture of public life. The Obama Foundation has now announced the final group of artists for the 19.3-acre site, completing a program that places major commissions throughout the center’s gathering spaces, circulation areas, and interiors.
Among the newly announced artists are Native American artist Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972), Nigerian American artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby (b. 1983), American photographer Lorna Simpson (b. 1960), and Chicago-born artist Rashid Johnson (b. 1977). Their works will be integrated across the campus in ways the center says are meant to encourage movement, encounter, and reflection.
Virginia Shore, curator of the Obama Presidential Center art commissions, and Louise Bernard, director of the Obama Presidential Center Museum, said in a joint statement that the program is designed to “activate key spaces throughout the campus” and invite the public to “discover, experience joy, and reflect on the relationship between creativity and innovation in a healthy democracy.”
Several commissions are closely tied to the center’s programmatic spaces. Crosby’s portrait of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will combine archival images, personal photographs, and references to Chicago, where the couple still lives part-time. María Magdalena Campos-Pons will create Still Holding the Scent of Flowers, a replica of the White House Rose Garden near the Oval Office replica, using floral and edible plant forms that echo Michelle Obama’s advocacy around food and health.
Gibson’s Yet With a Steady Beat (2026) will consist of 17 circular prints, each 18 inches in diameter, evoking Native American hand drums and political buttons. Johnson’s Broken Men, a large-scale mosaic of obscured figures, will be installed in the Teaching Kitchen. Simpson’s Durative (2026), part of her “Ice” series, will appear in the seminar room, while Hugo McCloud’s Hidden Reflection (2026) will hang in the private dining room.
The campus will also feature Martin Puryear’s monumental sculpture in the central plaza, inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s phrase “bending the arc” toward justice, and Norman Teague’s eight walnut benches. One of the most visible elements remains Julie Mehretu’s 83-foot-tall facade, Uprising of the Sun (2026), announced in September 2024.
The final roster also includes artists previously announced with Chicago ties, among them Richard Hunt, Theaster Gates, and Tyanna J. Buie. Taken together, the commissions suggest a center that treats art as civic infrastructure — something to be encountered in passing, in conversation, and in the ordinary rhythm of public space.
