RELATED ARTICLES
Almudena Caso Burbano
Ibrahim Mahama
Artist
Ibrahim Mahama uses the transformation of materials to explore themes of commodity, migration, globalization and economic exchange. Often made in collaboration with others, his large-scale installations employ materials gathered from urban environments, such as remnants of wood, or jute sacks which are stitched together and draped over architectural structures. Mahama’s interest in material, process and audience first led him to focus on jute sacks that are synonymous with the trade markets of Ghana where he lives and works. Fabricated in South East Asia, the sacks are imported by the Ghana Cocoa Boards to transport cocoa beans and eventually end up as multi- functional objects, used for the transportation of food, charcoal and other commodities. “You find different points of aesthetics within the surface of the sacks’ fabric,” Mahama has said. “I am interested in how crisis and failure are absorbed into this material with a strong reference to global transaction and how capitalist structures work.”
Ibrahim Mahama was born in 1987 in Tamale, Ghana. He lives and works in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale. His work has appeared in numerous international exhibitions including NIRIN, 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020); tomorrow, there will be more of us, Stellenbosch Triennale (2020); Future Genealogies, Tales From The Equatorial Line, 6th Lubumbashi Biennale, Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019); Parliament of Ghosts, The Whitworth, University of Manchester (2019); Ghana Freedom, inaugural Ghana pavilion, 58th Venice Biennale, Venice (2019); Labour of Many, Norval Foundation, Cape Town (2019); Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel (2017); All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015); Artist’s Rooms, K21, Düsseldorf (2015); Material Effects, The Broad Art Museum, Michigan (2015); An Age of Our Own Making, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen and Holbaek (2016) and Fracture, Tel Aviv Art Museum, Israel (2016). In March 2019, Ibrahim Mahama opened the artist-run project space Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) in Tamale, Ghana, followed by the opening of a vast studio complex, Red Clay, in nearby Janna Kpeŋŋ in September 2020. Encompassing exhibition space, research facilities and an artist-residency hub, both sites represent Mahama’s contribution towards the development and expansion of the contemporary art scene in his home country. In April 2021, Mahama opened a renovated silo, Nkrumah Volini, in Tamale. This is the third educational institution he has opened in Northern Ghana since over the past two years.
Ibrahim Mahama
Artist
Ibrahim Mahama uses the transformation of materials to explore themes of commodity, migration, globalization and economic exchange. Often made in collaboration with others, his large-scale installations employ materials gathered from urban environments, such as remnants of wood, or jute sacks which are stitched together and draped over architectural structures. Mahama’s interest in material, process and audience first led him to focus on jute sacks that are synonymous with the trade markets of Ghana where he lives and works. Fabricated in South East Asia, the sacks are imported by the Ghana Cocoa Boards to transport cocoa beans and eventually end up as multi- functional objects, used for the transportation of food, charcoal and other commodities. “You find different points of aesthetics within the surface of the sacks’ fabric,” Mahama has said. “I am interested in how crisis and failure are absorbed into this material with a strong reference to global transaction and how capitalist structures work.”
Ibrahim Mahama was born in 1987 in Tamale, Ghana. He lives and works in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale. His work has appeared in numerous international exhibitions including NIRIN, 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020); tomorrow, there will be more of us, Stellenbosch Triennale (2020); Future Genealogies, Tales From The Equatorial Line, 6th Lubumbashi Biennale, Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019); Parliament of Ghosts, The Whitworth, University of Manchester (2019); Ghana Freedom, inaugural Ghana pavilion, 58th Venice Biennale, Venice (2019); Labour of Many, Norval Foundation, Cape Town (2019); Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel (2017); All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015); Artist’s Rooms, K21, Düsseldorf (2015); Material Effects, The Broad Art Museum, Michigan (2015); An Age of Our Own Making, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen and Holbaek (2016) and Fracture, Tel Aviv Art Museum, Israel (2016). In March 2019, Ibrahim Mahama opened the artist-run project space Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) in Tamale, Ghana, followed by the opening of a vast studio complex, Red Clay, in nearby Janna Kpeŋŋ in September 2020. Encompassing exhibition space, research facilities and an artist-residency hub, both sites represent Mahama’s contribution towards the development and expansion of the contemporary art scene in his home country. In April 2021, Mahama opened a renovated silo, Nkrumah Volini, in Tamale. This is the third educational institution he has opened in Northern Ghana since over the past two years.
•
RELATED ARTICLES
-
Alex PragerPhotographerPrager’s works are in collections of National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Kunsthaus Zürich, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. (more…)
-
Mark Rothko / RetrospectiveOct 18, 2023 – Apr 2, 2024Fondation Louis Vuitton presents the first retrospective in France dedicated to Mark Rothko (1903–1970) since the exhibition held at the musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1999. (more…)
-
Ed Ruscha / Now ThenSep 10, 2023 – Jan 13, 2024The Museum of Modern Art presents Ed Ruscha / Now Then, the most comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s work ever staged, and his first solo exhibition at the Museum, from September 10, 2023, through January 13, 2024. Organized in close collaboration with the artist and mirroring his own cross-disciplinary approach, the exhibition will feature over 200 works, (more…)
-
Doug Aitkenartist / filmmakerDoug Aitken is an American artist and filmmaker. Defying definitions of genre, he explores every medium, from film and installations to architectural interventions. (more…)
-
Sorry, the Hardest Word?Nov 7 – 30, 2023Zavod P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Sorry, the Hardest Word? curated by Suzana Milevska that will take place in the frame of the celebration of its 30th anniversary at the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art. Sorry, the Hardest Word? presents artistic endeavours predicated on the urgent need to ponder the complex phenomenon of apology, and what should come after apologising. (more…)
-
Han Schuil / SOLOSep 2 – Nov 12, 2023The solo exhibition by the Dutch artist Han Schuil will be on display in Landhuis Oud Amelisweerd from September 2 to November 12, 2023. Schuil will use the historical chambers of the country manor to exhibit paintings from the past twenty years. Han Schuil (Voorschoten, 1958) has managed to build up a consistent and, above all, idiosyncratic oeuvre over the past forty years. (more…)
-
Cy TwomblyIn the Studio / OngoingCy Twombly was a North American artist who spent much of his career in Italy. He was fascinated by the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. In his paintings he often referred to historical or mythological figures, or included fragments of classical poetry. (more…)
-
KAFKA: 1924Oct 26, 2023 – Feb 11, 2024To mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka, the Museum VILLA STUCK pays tribute to the writer’s unending relevance and extraordinary power with a large-scale exhibition featuring contemporary artists. In addition to shaping generations of writers throughout the world, Kafka’s work has had an impact on numerous other fields of art (more…)
-
Maria Hassabi: I’ll Be Your MirrorOct 13 – Nov 26, 2023The artist and choreographer Maria Hassabi (b. Cyprus) has long pioneered live installations that explore the sculptural body, image-making, and the deceleration of time. Frequently involving dancers moving at a glacial, barely perceptible pace, Hassabi’s works confront visitors as living sculptures. Her works bring the performing body into museums, theatres, and public spaces, which shift the boundaries between visitors and performers, subjects and objects. (more…)
