The Obama Foundation has revealed the first official portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama together, painted by Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby.
Akunyili’s large-scale painting (9 feet tall and 10 feet wide) of the couple, “The Obamas: Springing Forth” (2026), rendered in the artist’s signature photo-transfer technique, will be on view in the lobby of the $850 million Barack Obama Presidential Center, nicknamed the “Obamalisk”. She based her portrait of the Obamas on a photograph she took of the couple. In the final work, Michelle is portrayed seated cross-legged just in front of Barack, who sits on a desk, subtly angled toward her.
Crosby incorporated images of places and symbols that encapsulate the Obamas’ public and personal histories. Among these subtle and recognizable references is a portrayal of Michelle Obama’s Chicago childhood home and the Charles Alston Martin Luther King, Jr. bust that sat in the Oval Office during the former president’s terms. The artist also added tender, faded photos of the couple embracing one another.
“I wanted to make these decisions that tapped into those memories, so when you saw this, it felt familiar,” Crosby told the Obamas.
Michelle Obama praised the work as capturing “all the stories within the story.”
The portrait is permanently installed inside the museum’s Hope and Change Lobby. This area is a completely public, free space that does not require an admission ticket to enter.
The Barack Obama Presidential Center is now open to the public.
