The Obama Foundation has announced the commissioning of ten additional artists to create original works for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which is set to open in spring 2026. The new lineup includes prominent artists Nick Cave, Nekisha Durrett, Jenny Holzer, Jules Julien, Idris Khan, Aliza Nisenbaum, Jack Pierson, Alison Saar, Kiki Smith, and Marie Watt, who will produce nine new site-specific pieces for the facility.
"President and Mrs Obama have always believed in the ability of artists to help us see our common humanity and imagine a more just future," said Valerie Jarrett, the chief executive of the Obama Foundation, in a statement. "These extraordinary commissions will not only enrich the Obama Presidential Center, but they will also invite every visitor to feel inspired, respected and connected."
Many of the newly commissioned works will use small individual elements as the foundation for monumental installations, serving as an allegory for democracy and emphasizing how individual people come together to form a larger whole. Several pieces also draw inspiration from significant historical moments, particularly those from the Civil Rights era in the United States.
In their first collaborative effort, Cave and Watt will create a large-scale installation featuring beaded nets and sculptural jingle elements that combine Indigenous and Black artistic traditions. Julien will develop a mural composed of tiny dots that explores themes of collective action and democracy. Durrett plans to reimagine Harriet Tubman's shawl using thousands of ceramic tiles as her medium.
Khan's contribution will be a ceiling installation featuring hundreds of hand-stamped words taken from President Obama's 2015 speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights protest marches from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama. Holzer will create a memorial to the Freedom Riders—Civil Rights activists who rode integrated buses through the Deep South in 1961 in defiance of local segregation laws—using redacted FBI files as her source material.
Other commissioned works will address more universal themes and subjects. Smith will create her largest bronze sculpture to date, depicting the moon and stars in an ambitious celestial installation. Pierson will construct a sculpture spelling out "hope," one of Obama's signature campaign slogans, using found letters. Nisenbaum will paint a mural celebrating civic life specifically for the center's new public library space. Meanwhile, Saar will produce a bronze sculpture that draws inspiration from both the Statue of Liberty and the Chicago blues tradition.
"Each of these commissions is a meditation on civic life," explained Louise Bernard, the founding director of the Obama Presidential Center Museum, in a statement. "From the intimacy of painting to the scale of public sculpture, these works speak to themes at the heart of the center: resilience, memory, identity and hope. Together, they create a deeply textured cultural landscape that reflects our past, animates the present and gestures towards the future."
The Obama Foundation had previously commissioned works from artists Lindsay Adams, Spencer Finch, Richard Hunt, Maya Lin, and Julie Mehretu for the Presidential Center. Mehretu's contribution stands as arguably the most prominent feature—an 83-foot-tall abstract painted-glass window that climbs up one side of the building. Additional commission announcements are expected as the center's opening date approaches.
