Ibrahim Mahama

Ibrahim Mahama (1987, Tamale, Ghana) lives and works between Accra and Tamale. He studied painting and sculpture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi (2013). His artistic practice is characterised by the use of reused urban material – remnants of wood, paper documents, jute sacks, shoeboxes, school blackboards and old doors – which he manipulates and transforms to explore themes such as the phenomenon of globalisation and migration and the trade in goods. As Mahama said ‘I am interested in how crisis and failure are absorbed into this material with a strong reference to global transactions and how capitalist structures work.”In 2019, Mahama opened the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) in Tamale, a museum space run by a group of artists and curators active in Ghana, followed by the opening of a vast studio complex, Red Clay, in September 2020. Comprising exhibition spaces, research facilities and an artist residency centre, both sites represent Mahama’s contribution to developing and expanding the contemporary art scene in his 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 in the last two years.

Mahama has held several institutional exhibitions, including his first solo show in Vienna at Kunsthalle Wien (2025); Kunsthalle Bern, Bern (2025); Fruitmarket, Edinburgh (2024); Mönchehaus Museum Goslar, Goslar (2024); Palazzo Diedo, Venice (2024) in conjunction with 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024); a temporary public commission, Barbican Center, London (2024 – 2023); Desert X AlUla (2024); Kunsthalle Osnabrück (2023); Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023); 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2023); the 35th Bienal de São Paulo (2023) Oude Kerk, Amsterdam (2022); Frac des Pays de la Loire, Nantes (2022); the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2021); the High Line, New York (2021); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020); the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (2020); University of Michigan Museum of Art (2020); the 58th and 56th Biennale Arte, Venice (2019 and 2015); Norval Foundation, Cape Town (both 2019); the Whitworth, University of Manchester (2019); Documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel (2017); Tel Aviv Art Museum (2016) and K.N.U.S.T Museum, Kumasi (2013). Mahama was appointed Artistic Director of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana (2023).

He was named Principal Prince Claus Laureate (2020), received the inaugural Sam Gilliam Award (2024), and was honoured with the Gold Award in the Established Artist category at the inaugural Art Basel Awards (2025). In 2025, the Republic of Ghana also granted him a diplomatic passport in recognition of his cultural contributions.

Portrait: Ibrahim Mahama. Courtesy of the Artist and APALAZZOGALLERY. Photo by Peter Rosemann.