Theaster Gates is building a monument to Black women at the Obama Presidential Center

Bobby Pen, The Grio

Sourced from the pages of Ebony and Jet, Gates’ new work transforms images of Black women into a lasting public tribute.

When the nearly 20-acre cultural and civic campus opens on Chicago’s South Side this spring, art will do much of the talking. Among the newly announced commissions for the Obama Presidential Center is a monumental, two-part frieze by Theaster Gates, transforming historic images of Black women into a sweeping meditation on Black beauty.

Installed inside the Forum Building, Gates’ work draws from two vast photographic archives of vintage editorial shots from Ebony and Jet magazines, the iconic publications that shaped Black visual culture in the decades following World War II. Printed on aluminum alloy and scaled to architectural proportions, the images form a comprehensive portrait of Black life, with a particular reverence for Black women.

The frieze will live in the building’s atrium, a public gathering space named after Hadiya Pendleton, the teenage majorette who performed at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration and was killed by gun violence just days later in 2013. The work will also be visible from Stony Island Avenue, a historic South Side thoroughfare and the same corridor where Gates operates the Stony Island Arts Bank, home to much of his archival work through his foundation, Rebuild.

For Gates, the commission is both deeply personal and part of a long-standing practice. For nearly a decade, the Chicago-born artist has served as caretaker of the Johnson Publishing Company archive, which includes Ebony and Jet. The Black-owned media powerhouse sold its assets in 2016, but the images live on through Gates’ stewardship and continued artistic reimagining.

“These publications amplified the dignity and the life of Black folk,” Gates said during a video call, reflecting on the magazines’ cultural impact. From fashion spreads to photojournalism, the imagery offered Black Americans a mirror — and a declaration — of their own humanity.

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