‘This will be timeless’: what art can we expect from Chicago’s $850m Obama Presidential Center?

Njideka Akunyili Crosby – The Obamas: Springing Forth, 2026. Photograph: Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner

It is a tale of two presidents. On 14 June Donald Trump celebrated his 80th birthday by hosting a raucous crowd for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on the White House South Lawn. Four days later, on the eve of Juneteenth, Barack Obama will unveil a monument to his legacy that honours the audacity of art.

For the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago, Barack and Michelle Obama commissioned original works by 30 artists from diverse backgrounds, a bold move never seen at such scale at a presidential library. It also forms a quiet rebuke of Obama’s successor, who has filled the Oval Office with stiff presidential portraits while plotting the demise of cultural stalwarts such as the Kennedy Center and Smithsonian Institution.