Issa Ibrahim is an artist, musician, author and filmmaker living and working in Queens, N.Y.
Insanity Plea Patient Out on Parole.
Chocolate Child of the Nuclear Age.
Black Bohemian Man Out of Time.
Raised from a living death in Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, Issa Ibrahim could be anybody. And he is you, or someone you know, who has run afoul of “The System” and fallen through the cracks of society. Same old story…why should you care? Maybe because there’s a bright and shiny rainbow at the end, and doesn’t everyone like happy endings?
Issa Ibrahim has been reborn. He has come into full bloom creatively while living under the most psychologically restrictive conditions. In 2016 Chicago Review Press published The Hospital Always Wins: A Memoir detailing his experiences in a broken mental health system including spending 20-years in an asylum following a horrific family tragedy.
Artist, Author, Musician, Filmmaker.
Above all a Survivor.
Like a soul entombed, Issa has come forth with tall tales of death, using humor, bite, toothpicks and bubblegum. Chronicling the various ghouls, grave robbers, maggots, witches and spirits that drifted through him in his quest to understand himself. Released from bondage, Issa re-experiences life decades later, like Rip Van Winkle or Captain America…except twice as hard cuz he’s black.
Come explore the nether regions of the soul with Issa Ibrahim...It just may re-kindle your will to live.
One fan raves-
“You take the raw materials of your existence and experiences and transmute them in art, music and a profound glimpse into realms others may not have been fortunate enough to see without your guidance.”
Current and Upcoming Shows
4/24/2025 - 6/1/2025
Threads of Resilience:
A Mental Health Exhibition
group show curated by Dawn DeVito
Culture Lab LIC
5-25 46 Ave. Long Island City, NY
5/12/2025 - 5/18/2025
Memory
5 Day pop up during the LIC Arts Open Festival
group show curated by Carolina Penafiel
venue TBD
stay tuned
Spotlight
Artwork featured in the group exhibition ‘Threads of Resilience: A Mental Health Exhibition’
Rogue's Gallery, 49” x 88”, latex and enamel on unstretched canvas, 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. The hospital administration was not prepared to deal with a fearless artist in their charge. They confiscated all the paintings and pored over the works to find pathology to support their diagnoses. Many of those diagnoses no longer exist in the psychiatric practice.
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.
Artwork featured in the group exhibition pop up ‘Memory’
The Best Man? found objects, acrylic, 4.5" h x 4.5" w x 4.5" d, 2023
Girl Power, found objects, acrylic on wood, 8" h x 8" w x 8" d, 2023
Not Safe for Babies, found objects, acrylic on wood, 8" h x 8" w x 3.5" d, 2023
GEwIZ- Touching Madness
(new music coming May 22!)
“On a rainy, muggy, New York City summer afternoon in August 2009 I was willingly abducted onto the spaceship of my dear friend and filmmaker G-oh. There, in a whirlwind six-hour session, interrupted by a walk on the Highline and lunch at the Silly Diner, we wrote a gaggle of songs. Presented here in demo form, complete in their incompletion, with flubbed lines and sketchy arrangements, are the songs that will become ‘GEwIZ! Touching Madness’…or some such…
Travel with me, full of wonder with guitar and notebook in hand.
Come to the twentieth floor, in a labyrinthine living space, where two pioneers, G-oh and Izzy AHA, reach beyond the parameters of pop music, searching for poetic moments beyond the usual, that reflect who they are, who you are, who we are…” – Issa Ibrahim
The Daily Play…new limited web series coming soon!
The Daily Play uses art to cast an unflinching eye on what may be civilization’s lowest point in modern history. These 14-minute videos feature “fake news” satire, musical vignettes and faux commercials with bitterly amusing takes on world politics and our bankrupt culture. It is a NY Times Op-Doc-style compendium of dubious News, as if on steroids. Everything you need to know is in the magazine's motto, "The least satisfying I told you so."
First episode dropping later this year.
Watch this space or check it out on my channel on YouTube.