Ibrahim Mahama | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1987 (age 36–37) Tamale, Northern Region, Ghana |
| Education | Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology |
| Occupation | Artist |
Ibrahim Mahama (born in 1987) is a Ghanaian artist [1] of monumental installations. [2] [3] He lives and works in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale, Ghana. [4] He is the founder of Red Clay Studio, Savannah Centre for Contemporary Arts and Nkrumah Volini.
He obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Sculpture in 2013 and a bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting in 2010 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. [1]
He often works with found objects by transforming them in his practice and giving them new meanings. Mahama is best known for draping buildings in old jute sacks which he stitches together with a team of collaborators to create patchwork quilts. He was the youngest artist featured in the Ghana Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. His work was shown during the 56th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in Italy All The World’s Futures curated by Okwui Enwezor in 2015. [4]
Mahama shows his works in Ghanaian markets, as well as galleries. This is intended to provide a critical reflection on the value system inherent to his materials. [2] He is also a painter and sculptor.
In 2013, Stefan Simchowitz, along with Dublin gallerist Ellis King, sued Mahama. Mahama had been paid by the dealers, but refused to authenticate derivative works they produced from Mahama's installations of Ghanaian coal sacks. In 2016, Simchowitz settled with Mahama. [5] [6]
In 2019, he started the Savannah Center for Contemporary Art (SCCA), Tamale. [7] Mahama also repurposed 120 scratched second-class train seats through a parliament he calls the "parliament of ghost", a replica of Ghana's parliament chamber. The parliament of ghost was installed at the Whitworth Art gallery in Manchester. [8]
Mahama's work was exhibited at Artspace for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney in 2020. [9]
As part of his contribution to the development of Africa through art, [10] Mahama was named the 73rd most influential African by theafricareport.com in the list of 100 most influential Africans 2019/2020 [11]
| Exhibition | Year | Location | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garden of scarcity [12] | 2022 | De Oude Kerk, Amsterdam | Netherlands |
| Lazarus [13] | 2021 | White Cube | United Kingdom |
| Fragments [14] | 2017 | White Cube | United Kingdom |
| Material Effects | 2015 | Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University | United States |
| Civil Occupation | 2014 | Ellis King, Dublin | Ireland |
| Kawokudi Coal Sack Installation, Accra, Ghana Nima Coal Sack Installation, Accra, Ghana Adum Coal Sack Installation, Kumasi, Ghana Jute, What Is Art? | 2013 | Accra Accra Railway Station, Kumasi K.N.U.S.T Museum, Kumasi | Ghana |
Sisala Coal Market, Coal Sack Installation Trading Identities, Installation | 2012 | Newtown, Accra MFA Block, Kumasi | Ghana |
| The colonized body, Installation | 2011 | Kokomlemle, Accra | Ghana |
| Class and Identity, Installation, K.N.U.S.T, Kumasi, Ghana | 2010 | K.N.U.S.T, Kumasi | Ghana |
| Purity? Cultures of display, Installation | 2009 | Bomso, Kumasi | Ghana |
Tamale is the capital city of the Northern Region of Ghana. It is Ghana's third largest city, with a population of 950,000. The city has been ranked as the fastest-growing city in West Africa. It is located 600 km (370 mi) north of Accra.
John Dramani Mahama is a Ghanaian politician who served as President of Ghana from 24 July 2012 to 7 January 2017. He previously served as Vice President of Ghana from January 2009 to July 2012, and took office as president on 24 July 2012 following the death of his predecessor, John Evans Fiifi Attah Mills.
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Stefan Simchowitz is a Los Angeles-based art collector, art curator, and art advisor. He is a vocal proponent of social media as a legitimate way of discovering, distributing, and popularizing the fine arts, primarily using Facebook and Instagram as platforms for self-promotion, discovering new artists, and endorsing those he already manages.
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Ibrahim Mahama is a Ghanaian businessman and founder of Engineers and Planners, a West African indigenous-owned mining company. He owns several other businesses in Ghana, including Dzata Cement Limited. He is the younger brother of John Dramani Mahama, President of Ghana from 2012 to 2017.
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Ghana Freedom was a Ghanaian art exhibition at the 2019 Venice Biennale, an international contemporary art biennial in which countries represent themselves through self-organizing national pavilions. The country's debut pavilion, also known as the Ghana pavilion, was highly anticipated and named a highlight of the overall Biennale by multiple journalists. The six participating artists—Felicia Abban, John Akomfrah, El Anatsui, Selasi Awusi Sosu, Ibrahim Mahama, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye—represented a range of artist age, gender, locations, and prestige, selected by curator Nana Oforiatta Ayim. The show paired young and old artists across sculpture, filmmaking, and portraiture, and emphasized common threads across postcolonial Ghanaian culture in both its current inhabitants and the diaspora. Almost all of the art was commissioned specifically for the pavilion. Architect David Adjaye designed the pavilion with rusty red walls of imported soil to reflect the cylindrical, earthen dwellings of the Gurunsi within the Biennale's Arsenale exhibition space. The project was supported by the Ghana Ministry of Tourism and advised by former Biennale curator Okwui Enwezor. After the show's run, May–November 2019, works from the exhibition were set to display in Accra, Ghana's capital.
Ghana Senior High School (Ghanasco) is a co-educational second cycle institution located in Tamale, Northern Region of Ghana.
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Tamale Senior High School formerly Government Secondary School, Tamale, Gbewaa Secondary School, and more recently Tamale Secondary School is a co-educational second cycle boarding school located at Education Ridge, a suburb of the Sagnarigu Municipality. The school was founded in 1951 by the then British Colonial Authorities as the first second cycle institution of the Northern Territories.
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