By Janet Abena Quainoo
Ghana is endowed with many skilled hands, and notable amongst them are middle-aged Ibrahim Mahama, an artist who has to his credit, a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting.
He stands out as one of the finest artists in Ghana and Africa.
He attended and obtained his degree and master at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He is 35 years of age and lives and works in Tamale, Ghana.
He is well noted in his usage of jute sacks which he inscribes names on and beautifully embellishes with regional patterns.
He was the youngest artist to be featured in the Ghana Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
He was known to have sold one of his finest artworks for a million dollars, after which he used the money acquired to purchase slightly used six planes, not for fame, but to be used as learning areas for young people.
His eye-catching installations and artworks have been put up in many art spaces and he has also made notable appearances at several exhibitions including Biennale of Sydney on Cockatoo Island; 2019 Frieze Sculpture presentation at Rockefeller Center in New York; Ghana Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale; 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020); Stellenbosch Triennale (2020); Future Genealogies; Tales from The Equatorial Line; 6th Lubumbashi Biennale and many others.
He is also represented at the renowned White Cube Gallery.
Ibrahim Mahama also started the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art in Tamale, an artist-run project space, exhibition and research hub, cultural repository, and artists’ residency dedicated to art and cultural practices that emerged in the 20th Century.
He also repurposed 120 scratched second-class train seats through a parliament he calls the “parliament of ghost, ” a model of Ghana’s parliament chamber. The parliament of ghost is currently installed at the Whitworth Art gallery in Manchester.
