Ibrahim Mahama
Ibrahim Mahama (b. 1987, Tamale, Ghana) is a leading figure in contemporary art whose practice engages with global histories of trade, labor and migration. He is known for his transdisciplinary practice, and most notably for his monumental installations that reimagine socio-political narratives embedded in found materials, such as jute sacks, fabrics, maps, as well as discarded planes, railways and hospital beds. Through his use of salvaged and culturally charged objects, Mahama’s practice invites us to engage with narratives of transformation and confronts us with historical and contemporary global systems. Mahama is the founder of Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA), Red Clay Studio and Nkrumah Volini, three expansive art institutions in his hometown of Tamale, Northern Region of Ghana. These interconnected spaces are dedicated to contemporary art and education through community-driven projects.
A graduate of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Mahama’s works have been featured at prestigious international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (2015, 2017), Documenta 14 (2017), the Biennale of Sydney (2020) and the Biennale de São Paulo (2023), marking him as a significant voice in contemporary art discourse. In 2024, the Barbican installation Purple Hibiscus saw him cover the Barbican building in London in woven cloth.
Mahama is also represented by Apalazzo gallery (IT) and White Cube (UK/USA).
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024 Songs about Roses, Fruit Market, Edimburg, UK
2024 Purple Hibiscus, Unravel, Barbican Center, London, UK
2024 Janus, Palazzo Diedo, Venice, Italy
2024 Garden of Scars, Malta Art Biennale, Malta, Malta
2024 Threads, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK
2024 Before Tomorrow, 30 years of Astrup Fearnley Museet, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway
2024 Long-distance Friendships, Kaunas Biennial, Kaunas, Lithuania
2024 Unravel, the Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, Barbican Centre, London, UK
2024 In the Presence of Absence, curated by Maya El Khalil and Marcello Dantas, Desert × AlUla 2024, Saudi Arabia
2024 REFUGE, curated by Kathryn Weir and Folakunle Oshun, Lagos Biennial, Lagos Island, US
2023 Artistic Direction of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana,
2023 Slovenia 35th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2023 TRANSFER(S), Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany
2023 In Brilliant light, Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden, Netherlands
2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago, US
2023 The Laboratory of the Future, 18th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
2023 Thinking historically in the present, 15th Sharjah Biennal, Sharjah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2023 The Educational Web, Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany
2022 Garden of Scars, Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2022 VOLI-NI, curated by Eva Brioschi, E.ART.H – Eataly Art House, Verona, Italy
2022The Memory of Love, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Nantes, France
2022 Intervention commissioned by Pitti Immagine, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, Italy
2022 The Memory of Love, Massimo De Carlo, Piece Unique, Paris, France
2022 Burning At The Edges, Longlati Foundation, Shangai, China
2022 Contextile - Bienal de Arte Têxtil Contemporânea 6th Edition, Guimares, Portugal
2022 Revival: Materials and Monumental Forms, ICA Boston, Watershed, USA
2021 As the void, vali and voli, APALAZZOGALLERY, Brescia, Italy
2021 Capital Corpses II, La condition publique, Roubaix, France
2021 Ibrahim Mahama, Middelheimmuseum, Antwerpen, Belgium
2021 57 Forms of Liberty in “The Musical Brain”, The High Line, New York, US
2021 Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now: Social Fabric, IMMA, Dublin, Ireland
2021 Waste × Age: What can design do?, Design Museum, London, UK
2021 Afro-Atlantic Histories, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., US
2021 Ubuntu, a lucid dream, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2021 Utopia Distopia: il mito del progresso partendo dal Sud, Museo Madre, Naples, Italy
2021 Fourth Plinth Shortlist, National Gallery, London, UK
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Collezione La Gaia, Busca, Italy Fondazione Giuliani, Rome
Fondation H, Madagascar
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil
K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong
Longlati Foundation, Shanghai, China
Long Museum, Shanghai, China
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California Madre Museum, Naples, Italy
Margulies Collection, Miami, Florida National Gallery of Art, Washington DC National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Norwich Castle Museum, Norwich, UK
Pino Pascali Foundation, Polignano a Mare, Italy
Voorlinden Museum, Wassenaar, The Netherlands
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK Zinsou Foundation, Benin
