'How, I wondered, does one approach representing a couple that is among the most photographed and documented in the world, if not history? “It’s something I’m still thinking about every day as I work on the piece,” Akunyili Crosby says.'
'Akunyili Crosby recalls where she was the night Obama was first elected and how it felt then. But this portrait, she says, is not about nostalgia. Rather, she wants it to capture the “tension” of competing interpretations and competing senses of the past and present. “Nostalgia for the past is always a dicey thing,” she says. “But that does not mean it wasn’t important for me to kind of touch upon the feelings we all had—and the hope.” — Lauren Michele Jackson
Image: Njideka Akunyilil Crosby, The Obamas: Springing Forth, 2026Acrylic, colored pencils, charcoal, and transfers on paper
Unframed: 108 x 120 in
Framed: 115 1/8 x 127 5/16 x 3 5/16 in
© Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner
Commissioned by The Obama Foundation
Photo: Marten Elder
June 15 2026
