{"id":19179,"date":"2025-09-13T17:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/19179\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T17:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:28:08","slug":"artists-including-jenny-holzer-alison-saar-and-kiki-smith-creating-commissions-for-obama-presidential-center-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/19179\/","title":{"rendered":"Artists including Jenny Holzer, Alison Saar and Kiki Smith creating commissions for Obama Presidential Center – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Obama Foundation has commissioned ten more artists to make works for the Obama Presidential Center<\/a> in Chicago, which is scheduled to open in spring 2026. Nine new site-specific pieces<\/a> will be created by Nick Cave, Nekisha Durrett, Jenny Holzer, Jules Julien, Idris Khan, Aliza Nisenbaum, Jack Pierson, Alison Saar, Kiki Smith and Marie Watt.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident and Mrs Obama have always believed in the ability of artists to help us see our common humanity and imagine a more just future,\u201d Valerie Jarrett, the chief executive of the Obama Foundation, said in a statement. \u201cThese extraordinary commissions will not only enrich the Obama Presidential Center, but they will also invite every visitor to feel inspired, respected and connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the new commissions use small elements as the basis for monumental works, an allegory for democracy and the importance of individual people forming a larger whole. Several of the works also reference significant historical moments, especially during the Civil Rights era in the United States.<\/p>\n

In their first collaboration, Cave and Watt, will make a large installation of beaded nets and sculptural \u201cjingle elements\u201d, combining Indigenous and Black traditions. Meanwhile, Julien will create a mural of tiny dots about collective action and democracy. And Durrett will reimagine Harriet Tubman\u2019s shawl using thousands of ceramic tiles. <\/p>\n

Khan\u2019s new ceiling work will feature hundreds of hand-stamped words from President Obama\u2019s 2015 speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights protest marches from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama. And Holzer will use redacted FBI files<\/a> to create a memorial to the Freedom Riders\u2014Civil Rights activists who rode integrated buses together through the Deep South in 1961 in defiance of local segregation laws.<\/p>\n

Other commissions will be more universal in subject matter. Smith will create her largest bronze sculpture ever, depicting the moon and stars. Pierson will make a sculpture spelling out \u201chope\u201d, one of Obama’s core campaign slogans, with found letters. And Nisenbaum will create a mural of civic life for the centre\u2019s new public-library space. Meanwhile, Saar will make a bronze sculpture inspired by both the Statue of Liberty and the Chicago blues.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of these commissions is a meditation on civic life,\u201d Louise Bernard, the founding director of the Obama Presidential Center Museum, said in a statement. \u201cFrom the intimacy of painting to the scale of public sculpture, these works speak to themes at the heart of the centre: 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Obama Foundation previously commissioned works by the artists Lindsay Adams, Spencer Finch<\/a>, Richard Hunt<\/a>, Maya Lin<\/a> and Julie Mehretu<\/a> for the Obama Presidential Center. Mehretu\u2019s work is arguably the most prominent\u2014an 83ft-tall abstract painted-glass window that climbs one side of the building. More commissions are expected to be announced as the opening of the centre approaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Obama Foundation has commissioned ten more artists to make works for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,5456,2193,308,93,61,12557,60,8541,14618,4199],"class_list":["post-19179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-barack-obama","tag-chicago","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-illinois","tag-ireland","tag-museums-heritage","tag-obama-presidential-center","tag-public-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}