Portrait artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby has mastered the art of bridging cultures and weaving memories into her work, an approach she applied in her most recent piece: the first joint portrait of the former US president and first lady, Barack and Michelle Obama.

The Nigerian-born artist, who has lived in the US since she was a teenager, draws on influences from both countries and her own life when creating her work: She once spent hours looking at flora and fauna from Nigeria and Los Angeles for a self-portrait with her son in a garden. The MacArthur “genius” grant-winner adopted the same method for her portrait of the Obamas, featured in the lobby of the new presidential building in Chicago. She pored over the couple’s books, listened to podcasts, and watched interviews, eventually incorporating photographs of the couple in the piece. “I wanted to make these decisions that tapped into those memories, so when you saw this, it felt familiar,” Akunyili Crosby told the Obamas.