The Obama Presidential Center opens with major new commissions by Theaster Gates, Richard Hunt and Julie Mehretu

The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago opens with three major new commissions by Theaster Gates, Richard Hunt and Julie Mehretu.

Richard Hunt’s Book Bird is installed in the Library Reading Garden, adjacent to the Chicago Public Library branch on the Center’s campus. Commissioned by Barack Obama in 2022, the sculpture is realised in Hunt’s hometown of Chicago, where the artist’s pioneering approach to public art has had a profound and lasting impact.

Theaster Gates has created a landmark installation for the Hadiya Pendleton Atrium. Drawing on photographic material from the Johnson Publishing Company image archive and the Howard Simmons photographic collection, the work celebrates Black Chicago’s legacies of creative power, self-determination and collective resolve.

Julie Mehretu’s Uprising of the Sun, an 83-foot-tall painted glass window, spans the north façade of the Center’s Museum building. The artist’s first work in glass, the commission takes inspiration from President Obama’s remarks on the 50th anniversary of the marches from Montgomery to Selma, reflecting on history, democracy and collective transformation.

Commissions were curated by Virginia Shore, Curator of the Obama Presidential Center Art Commissions at Shore Art Advisory LLC.