The U.S President, Barrack Obama, through his Foundation, The Obama Presidential Center, has announced late Prof. Dora Akunyili’s daughter name, Njideka Crosby, as one of the final group of major artist commissioned in advance of its June 19 opening in Chicago.
According to the information contained in a press release on the Foundation’s website, “the Presidential Center expands its art program with its final artist announcement before its officially opening, bringing together world-renowned and emerging artists whose practices reflect the Obamas’ commitment to public art.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby is billed among artists like María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Jeffrey Gibson, Rashid Johnson, Hugo McCloud, Martin Puryear, Lorna Simpson, and Norman Teague who will be 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.”
The Foundation added: “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.”
The Foundation continued: “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.”
The Foundation however, praised the work of 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.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby is a nonprofit 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. Her work is held in significant museum collections throughout the world.
She is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Art from Otis College of Art, 2024, and Swarthmore College in 2019, a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship and was awarded Financial Times’ Women of the Year, 2016, alongside the Future Generation Art Prize 2017 Shortlist. She is the recipient of the Prix Canson Prize, 2016, Foreign Policy’s Leading 100 Global Thinkers of 2015, the Next Generation Prize, New Museum of Contemporary Art, 2015, the Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize, 2015, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s James Dicke Contemporary Art Prize, 2014.
Recent solo exhibitions include Front Room: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, The Baltimore Museum of Art (2018) alongside Prospect.4, curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, New Orleans, Louisiana (2018); Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Predecessors, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, which toured to Tang Museum at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY (2017); Portals, Victoria Miro, London (2016), I Refuse to be Invisible, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach (2016) and The Beautyful Ones, Art + Practice, Los Angeles (2015), staged concurrently with a solo presentation at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2015).
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