Ghana's Ibrahim Mahama Becomes First African to Head ArtReview's Prestigious Power 100 List
Ghana's Ibrahim Mahama Becomes First African to Head ArtReview's Prestigious Power 100 List
This list is a ranking of people who "have shaped what art has been seen and how it has been seen over the past 12 months".
Mahama's work explores collective memory, and the impacts and legacies of trade, migration, commerce, and colonialism in Africa, ArtReview noted.
"I’m interested in the residual quality of the elements within the work. A lot of people in the West, particularly if you’re in London and you’re consuming goods and commodities that are coming from other parts of the world, you really don’t reflect upon the labour that goes into producing those things," the artist told in an interview ArtReview.
Mahama has transformed Ghana's creative landscape through major cultural projects funded by his artistic work, according to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, where he studies.
Also making it to the top were other African artists:
• Egyptian artist Wael Shawky, ranked 4th.
• DRC artist Sammy Baloji, ranked 31st.
• Nigerian artist Azu Nwagbogu, ranked 45th.
• Senegalese artist Marie Hélène Pereira, ranked 55th.
• Congolese group Cercle D’Art Des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise, ranked 82th.
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