His work has appeared in numerous international exhibitions including the 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, Dusseldorf (2015); Material Effects, The Broad Art Museum, Michigan (2015); An Age of Our Own Making, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen and Holbæk (2016) and Fracture, Tel Aviv Art Museum, Israel (2016). In his installations and wall-based works, Ibrahim Mahama considers the ways in which capital and labor are expressed in common materials. Ibrahim Mahama, A Grain of Wheat, 2015-18, mixed media.
View Ibrahim Mahama’s profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. The deplorable state of the Tamale-Salaga-Makango road has been a major challenge for the good people of Salaga and it's surrounds. We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation; Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation; the Bidiagal and Gamaygal people, on whose ancestral lands and waters NIRIN gathers.Since its inception in 1973, the Biennale of Sydney has provided a platform for art and ideas, showcasing the work of nearly 1,800 artists from more than 100 countries.
Ibrahim Mahama uses the transformation of materials to explore themes of commodity, migration, globalisation and economic exchange. Norval Foundation is delighted to announce a major installation by Ibrahim Mahama, the first of its kind in South Africa.
‘You find different points of aesthetics within the surface of the sacks’ fabric’, Mahama has said. 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.
Born in 1987 in Tamale, Ghana, Mahama regularly envelops buildings—theaters, museums, residential buildings, ministries—in Accra and Kumasi. Presented at the 22nd Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Andrew Cameron AM and Cathy Cameron, and Anonymous, and assistance from White Cube. See the complete profile on LinkedIn and discover Ibrahim’s connections and jobs at similar companies.
Ibrahim Mahama’s practice of swathing buildings in fabric should be read within this framework. 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.
The 57 kilometer road was awarded to Messrs Engineers and Planners in 2016 by the John Mahama led administration. Mahama’s rigorous, socially engaged and process based practice, brings to the fore Africa’s role in the global exchange of commodities while considering the movement of its people and how labour is valued.
Today it is considered one of the leading international contemporary art events, recognised for commissioning and presenting innovative, thought provoking art from Australia and around the globe.We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation; Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation; the Bidiagal and Gamaygal people, on whose ancestral lands and waters NIRIN gathers.NIRIN is a safe place for people to honour mutual respect and the diversity of expression and thoughts that empower us all.
Ibrahim Mahama’s largescale, immersive installation ‘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.’A critical feature of the artist’s practice is the process by which he obtains his materials. He lives and works in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale. Included in the 2015 Venice Biennale, Mahama is best known for his use of jute sacks, cloth bags once used to carry cocoa and now employed as vessels for coal.