SELF-PORTRAITS

Here are a career's worth of self-portraits by artist Issa Ibrahim. Which one is your favorite?

POP CULTURE ICONS

Past Masters, Musical Icons from the 20th Century

As the son of a jazz musician father and an avid record collecting artist mother, I live and breathe music and media. I also understand the gift that this rich upbringing is to each artistic endeavor. 35 years into my professional career as an iconoclast and provocateur with a steely eye on what's to come, I see bleak and foreboding harbingers for what's ahead of us, so I decide to turn my back on the future and embrace nostalgia. With this large acrylic and ink Icon tapestry series I draw from the lexicon of popular culture, squeezing out Black and blue Americanisms and lovingly chronicling the zenith of 20th century musical achievement marrying retro graphic design with a modern narrative, offering respectful hat-tips and reclamations where the forgotten pioneers are crowned royalty and get their due.

BODY PRINTS

Body & Soul series from Creedmoor Psychiatric Center’s Living Museum 1997

Prior to this period, I had done figurative oil paintings, some depicting unflattering portraits of the administration. Any expression of raw emotion or sexuality was usually deemed “inappropriate” and grounds for re-evaluation and possible re-diagnosis. These face prints were all I could do, as an abstraction, moving away from figurative painting, without scrutiny from those who were looking for excuses to keep me locked up. They were so much more cathartic than my regular paintings, they were transformative. Infused with blood, sweat, and tears- body and soul. I found I could express the frustration of the institutionalized, as if trapped in a frozen state of inertia and make a personal statement about race polarization, the dissonance within myself as a product of a multi-hued family, in addition to providing commentary on life as a black man in a white American mental institution.

MISFIT TOYS

Repurposed Found Object Sculptures

With 20 years of mental health horror stories, my own familial trauma, and a close eye on the declining state of my country and the civilized world, it would be those doll parts, in addition to church basement sales and, like my mom, good old-fashioned trash picking, that would become the basis for my new and improved collection of re-imagined, repurposed Misfit Toys. Being mentally ill and feeling like a misfit, having been discarded by my family and to a large part by society, like a broken toy, I make these figurines to heal my past and deal with the anxiety of adulthood. Sometimes they scare me because I've often told the future in my work. So, by embracing childhood icons, repurposed to tell racial, political, and societal horror stories, I come full circle.

UNDER THE COVERS

Small Works on Paper LP Art

Growing up in a musical household with the best of 1950s & 1960s music in our family's record collection, it was a no-brainer that in the late 1970s I would start venturing out and buying cool punk and new wave singles and LPs. I also had access to plenty of funk, R&B and early Hip Hop 12” singles. Eventually I had a short career as record store employee and then product manager in the 1980s. The times and music were good but I got to see the death of vinyl and ascent of the CD, which was confusing and depressing...I mean, what was I gonna do with all my records now that they're obsolete? While time has taken away my vinyl I still cherish the great images on the covers, and present to you some of the best of what I saw.

CARTOON HORROR

Small Works on Paper Movie Posters and Monster Parody

Re-imagined movie posters and funny takes on old horror films, As a child, my favorite TV programs were the horror movies. I loved catching a good austere scare from Universal Studios or England’s Hammer Films, but for the real primo nail biters I’d stay up on the weekend and take in Creature Features and Chiller Theater. These local fright shows with the goofy gothic hosts fed my young mind with the trashiest, scariest, freakiest Grade-B horror movies ever made. After watching these movies I’d start drawing the lead creature, usually hosting a variety show or singing on American Bandstand. This work is a continuation of that childhood tradition.

Purchase reproductions of select works spanning Issa’s career, art books and other related merch in Store