Isshaq Ismail (b. 1989, Accra, Ghana) lives and works in Accra, Ghana. He studied Paintings at the Ghanatta College of Art and Design, Accra, Ghana (2012). He is a visual artist known for his distinctive abstract style and unique approach to figurative painting. His paintings demonstrate a fidelity to what he has termed ‘infantile semi-abstraction’, a style that performs a technically and conceptually rich form of childish abandon. Marked by the liberal use of impasto, gestural lines and a vibrant colour palette, his works speak to the human condition in postmodernity. Ismail notes that his technique of painting mimics how a sculptor manipulates clay, which intimates a tactility to how the artist brings these subjects into being. The figures themselves are a surreal imagining of the human. Ismail explores the grotesque as an aesthetic form, asking what it means to confront the ugly and misshapen in a world, especially an artworld, that is fixated on beauty. The emotions and moods of subjects suffering from our angst-inducing social, cultural and political contemporary reality are captured far more vividly and effectively by his distortions than by a more ‘realistic’ rendering.
His work has been recently included in several exhibitions, such as: Fragments of a World After Its Own Image, curated by Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh, APALAZZOGALLERY, Brescia, Italy (2025); Where Gesture Meets Story” Private Collection of Charles Al Sidaoui, The Arts Club, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2024); Unlimited III, curated by Marwan Zakhem, Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana (2024); ORIGIN, Galerie von Vertes and Destinee Ross-Sutton, Ross-Sutton Gallery, New York, US (2024); Africa Supernova, Collection of Carla & Pieter Schulting, Kunsthal kade Museum, Amersfoort, Netherlands (2023); and Home is where the Art is, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands (2022).
