Threaded throughout the center—designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in partnership with Interactive Design Architects—is a raft of new site-specific artist commissions by 30 creators including Mark Bradford, Jenny Holzer, Jeffrey Gibson, and Julie Mehretu. Just this past week, the venue revealed the first official portrait of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, by the superstar Nigerian-American painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby.
“By providing the community with a new level of access and exposure to all forms of art and culture, Mrs. Obama ensured that the center would be the most welcoming and accessible space/place for the arts on the South Side of Chicago,” OPC’s curator of art commissions Virginia Shore stated via email.
Jay Heikes, Quintessence
Quintessence by Jay Heikes in Courtyard 1 at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, IL on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. Photo: courtesy of The Obama Foundation.
Six seven-pointed stars by Minneapolis-based sculptor Jay Heikes watch over guests in one museum courtyard. These charming, lopsided creations are the latest evolution in a series Heikes initiated for his Marianne Boesky show in 2013.
Those works, however, were made to live indoors. Some featured wax. Heikes’s latest efforts bringing Quintessence outside cap a decade spent trying to mix sturdy bronze with an airier component, like quartz, or in this instance, glass.
“I’ve been really dedicated to alchemy, trying to combine materials that are not so combinable,” Heikes said over video call. “This was one that gave me fits for about a decade, because I couldn’t find the right material to accept the bronze at 2200 degrees.” Quartz has so much water in it that it popped violently. Glass also pops, just less.
Heikes realized the sculptures needed to come from a single pour. Welding would also jeopardize the glass. He’s discovered the ideal temperatures to submerge chunks of glass within the bronze, and the ideal method: “open faced sand casting,” Heikes said. “A lot of places won’t do it, but my guys would.”
The results justify his efforts. The stars are extraterrestrial, iridescent, and, symbolically speaking, inspiring.
