22/06/2026
IDRIS KHAN • Congratulations to Idris Khan for the inauguration of “Sky of Hope” at the newly opened Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The artist was commissioned to do a site-specific work, contributing to the Center’s vision as a global destination for free public art.
Idris Khan’s work is a massive ceiling painting that overlaps thousands of hand-stamped words. Each word comes from a speech President Obama gave honoring Civil Rights leaders. Layers of stamps create a burst of color above, turning the room itself into part of the artwork.
Already featured in the press:
“Overhead, a monumental artwork by the artist Idris Khan gives the illusion of continued ascent. Words from President Obama’s famed remarks in Selma, Alabama, are stamped and overlapping, sloping upwards as a swath of blue until they reach a rim of light. In Selma, and elsewhere, the former president often spoke about collectively shaping destiny. And that seems to be the final note as you climb up through the museum: the unwritten, wide-open future.”
CNN Style
“The British artist Idris Khan transformed that great room’s ceiling into Sky of Hope, a site-specific installation that consists of thousands of hand-stamped overlapping words in blue radiating from the apex of the white ceiling, also referencing the Selma speech.”
The Art Newspaper
“All of the works relied on feedback from the President and First Lady, none more than Idris Khan’s Sky of Hope, a site-specific painting made up of thousands of hand-stamped words from President Obama’s famous Selma speech, given in 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Virginia Shore contacted Khan, thinking he would be the right person to work on the Center’s highest space. The speech’s words rise along part of the ceiling as it narrows to a skylight.”
Galerie Magazine
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Photo. Courtesy The Obama Foundation
