Media Coverage
In This Playlist:
Excerpt from HBO documentary The Living Museum- 1999
The Pulse radio interview on WHYY NPR- 2016
NY1 Patient’s Rites feature- 2015
The Leonard Lopate Show interview on WNYC NPR- 2016
The Hospital Always Wins, hour-long NPR audio story- 2013
106 & Park Gets a Look at the NYC Comic Con- 2012
Issa Ibrahim is a visual artist, author, musician and filmmaker born and raised in Queens, New York.
ISSA IBRAHIM on Wikipedia
He is the youngest child of five born to jazz musician Jamil Ibrahim and artist Audrey Jacobs- Ibrahim.
Creating art since early childhood, Ibrahim was educated at Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design and studied at the Art Students League. He acquired employment in the 1980s as a freelance artist creating T-shirt and album designs, most notably for NYC rock and roll band and Enigma/EMI recording artists The Del-Lords, in addition to drawing risqué cartoons published in Al Goldstein’s SCREW magazine.
He has exhibited in numerous galleries and non-profit spaces in the greater New York area as well as group shows at Hofstra University and the Queens Museum of Art in addition to the Netherlands and South Korea. His art has also been featured on German Public Television, in the 1999 HBO documentary, The Living Museum by Academy Award winning director, Jessica Yu, and the 2015 documentary That Which Is Possible.
Ibrahim’s memoir The Hospital Always Wins published by Chicago Review Press in 2016 has the notable distinction of being the first work published by an African American written from behind the walls of a mental institution. Ibrahim was the subject of an hour-long NPR audio story that won the 2014 Edward R. Murrow Award for Best News Documentary and the 2014 Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Director’s Choice Award.
Ibrahim is a 30-year artist-in-residence at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center’s Living Museum and is affiliated with Artlifting, an organization championing artists impacted by disabilities through the celebration and sale of their artwork. He is also a member artist represented by Fountain House Gallery in New York City; the premier gallery dedicated to promoting the artwork of artists with mental health challenges. Issa continues to create art of all kinds, painting numerous CD cover and merchandise designs for noted North Carolina Indie pop rockers The Spongetones and Jamie & Steve, and experimenting lately with found object sculpture.
Issa vows to continue challenging preconceived and prejudicial ideas in society, combat stigma, expose the realities of our broken mental health system and explore how openness can aid in respecting psychiatric sufferers and survivors who are our fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, friends, neighbors and ourselves.
Notable Press Coverage
Exhibitions:
BIFF! BAM! POW!, curator Marina Marchand, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 1/2025
Inside My Mind, curator Sophie Flack, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 9/2024
The Art of Solitude, curators Bonnie Astor/Lois Stavsky, The Local NYC, LIC, NY, 9/2024
Shattered, curator Dawn DeVito, Culture Lab at Plaxall Gallery, LIC, NY, 5/2024
Boundaries, curators Tracey Ryans/Nancy Caton- Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 3/2024
Outsider Art Fair, curators Fountain House Gallery, NYC- 2/2024
Show Us Your Hearts, curators Harvey Fierstein/Alyson Vega, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 1/2024
Parables of the Unknown- curator Zachary Frater- Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Jamaica, NY, 1/2024
Mushrooms UK, curators vermilion/Anna-Maria Amato, Sharp Gallery, London, UK, 9/2023
City Vision, curator Joanna Delson, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 9/2023
I Am Many: A Visual Mediation on Identity, curators Bonnie Astor/Lois Stavsky, The Local NYC, LIC, NY, 9/2023
Toys, curators David Rios/Judith Berman, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 7/2023
Truth Tellers, curators Karen Gormandy/Issa Ibrahim/Boo Lynn Walsh, The Factory, LIC, NY, 6/2023
Fridge Art Fair, curators Bonnie Astor/Lois Stavsky, Gallery 128, NYC, 5/2023
YELL! Fountain House Gallery Art Auction and Benefit, curator Roxane Gay, Prince George Ballroom, NYC, 4/2023
Outsider Art Fair, curators Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 3/2023
Mushrooms, curator vermilion, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 1/2023
Animal Crossing, curators Giovanni Aloi/Maria Brokema, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 9/2022
Superfine Art Fair, curator Fountain House Gallery, The Market Line, NYC, 9/2022
HOME: The Places We Inhabit, curators Bonnie Astor/Lois Stavsky, The Local NYC, LIC, NY, 5/2022
The Nude as Landscape, curators Sarah Faux, Elyse Goldberg, and Casey Lesser, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 3/2022
The Living Museum, curator Adriaan Van Der Plas, Van Der Plas Gallery, NYC, 2/2022
A Black Perspective on the Modern World, curators Ebony Young, Emily Addison, Luke Mannarino, Culture Lab at Plaxall Gallery, LIC, NY, 2/2022
Futures, curator Barbara Pollack, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 1/2022
Water, curator Eva Tortora, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 6/2021
Let America Be America, curator Karen Gormandy, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 9/2020
Art In Quarantine, curators Amanda Suarez/Karen Gormandy, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 5/2020
Artist’s Looking at Art, curators Joyce Siegel/Jonathan Rider, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 2/2020
Unbound: Authentic Visions and Voices, curators Bonnie Astor/Lois Stavsky, The Local NYC, LIC, NY, 1/2020
We See You, curator Frank Maresca, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 1/2020
Mad About Art Auction and Benefit, curator Jason Rolf, Metropolitan West, NYC, 11/2019
Heavy Sauce, curator Gerasimos Floratos, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 9/2019
The Flaneur, curator Adam Yokell, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 6/2019
Goliath/Off the Margins, curators Coalition to End Homelessness, One Art Space, NYC, 6/2019
At The Table, curators Monty Blanchard/Leslie Tcheyan, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 4/2019
Our People, curator Ruth Adams, Fountain House Gallery, NYC, 3/2019
Inside/Outside, curator Fountain House Gallery, Plaxall Gallery, LIC, NY, 1/2019
Love/Hate, curator Carolina Penafiel, Local Project Art Space, LIC, NY, 1/2019
Dangerous Gifts, curator Sascha Altman DuBrul, East Village Access, NYC, 6/2018
The Hospital Always Wins (solo exhibition and book launch), curator Martha Henry, Local Project Art Space, LIC, NY, 6/2016
Yourself, curator Carolina Penafiel, Local Project Art Space, LIC NY, 11/2015
All Good, curator Robert Guddahl, Guddahl Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 10/2015
Art Asylum, curators Dr. Janos Marton/Mitra Dejkameh, Hofstra University, Westbury LI, 10/2014
Shifting Alterity, curator Vida Sabbaghi, Skylight Gallery, NYC, 9/2014
Fine, Self-Taught and Outsider Art Auction, curators Material Culture, Philadelphia, Pa, 7/2014
Id, Ego, Superego: Art from The Living Museum, curators Dr. Janos Marton/Alexandra Plettenberg, Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies, NYC, 3/2014
An Inclusive World 2, curator Vida Sabbaghi, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY, 11/2013
Candles In the Light, Self Taught and Outsider Art Auction, curators Material Culture, Philadelphia, Pa, 11/2013
Unrestrained, curator Adriaan Van Der Plas, Van Der Plas Gallery, NYC, 3/2013
An Inclusive World, curator Vida Sabbaghi, Jamaica Center for Art And Learning, Queens, NY, 3/2013
The Superati, curator Katie Heffelfinger, NYC Comic Con, Jacob Javits Center, NYC, 10/2012
Make. Believe., curator Frank Maresca, Fountain Gallery, NYC, 1/2012
Outsider Art Fair, curators Fountain Gallery, NYC, 2/2010
Asylum, curators Dr. Janos Marton/Alexandra Plettenberg, Fountain Gallery, NYC, 1/2010
Divinity and Madness, curators Dr. Janos Marton/Alexandra Plettenberg, Mary Mount College, Milwaukee, Wi, 11/2009
First Annual European Outsider Arts Fair, curator Johan Westenburg, Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria, 5/2008
At the Edge, curator Cathy Byrd, Welch School of Art Georgia State University, Atlanta, Ga, 9/2007
From Art Therapy to Art: The Living Museum, curators Dr. Janos Marton/Alexandra Plettenberg, The Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island, Garden City, NY, 4/2007
World Psychiatric Association International Congress, curator Ekaterina Suhkanova, Istanbul, Turkey, 7/2006
Life. A Work of Art, curators Mental Health Association in New York State, Crossings Gallery, Albany, NY, 5/2006
The Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art, curator Larisa Glushtrom, Chicago, Ill, 10/2005
Love and Devotion, curator Larisa Glushtrom, Gallery 37 Center for the Arts, Chicago, Ill, 4/2005
Off the Beaten Path, curator Dr. Janos Marton, Ramscale Gallery, NYC, 1/2005
Tall Tales of Death, curator Linda Montano, Dabora Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 10/2004
Living Museum, curators Dr. Janos Marton/ Linda Montano, Dabora Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 6/2004
Peace by Piece, curator Hiroshi Sunairi, Guild & Greyshkul Gallery, NYC, 5/2004
Untied in Time/In Sanity, curators Lupe Rodriguez/Pamela Gibson, Madness & Arts World Festival Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada, 5/2003
In the Flow, curators Dr. Janos Marton/Valerie Smith, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY, 3/2002
Echoes of A New Millennium, curators Queens Council on the Arts, Queens Theatre in the Park, Woodhaven, NY, 2/2002
Art & Ability 3, curator Jim Pinney, Ruby Nottage Community Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 10/2001
Code Green, curator Dr. Janos Marton, Yager Museum Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY, 8/2001
Pier Show 9, curators Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY, 5/2001
Bridging Art & Ability 3, curator Jim Pinney, Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY, 3/2001
Art & Ability 2, curator Jim Pinney, UCP/NYC Window Gallery, NYC, 1/2001
Art & Ability, curator Jim Pinney, Long Island University Salena Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 10/2000
Capability, curator Jim Pinney, Catherine Street Gallery, Staten Island, NY, 7/2000
Third Annual Mermaid Show, curator Jim Pinney, Right Bank Café, Brooklyn, NY, 6/2000
Pier Show 8, curators Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY, 5/2000
Small Works on Paper 2, curator Jim Pinney, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY, 5/2000
Bridging Art & Ability 2, curator Jim Pinney, Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY, 3/2000
Millennium Perspective, curator Lawry Smith, Marlen Gallery, NYC, 2/2000
Interior Views, curator Jim Pinney, Belsky Art Society, Brooklyn, NY, 11/1999
A Moment Out of Time, curator Deborah Fedor, Federal Plaza, NYC, 11/1999
Fall Small Works Exhibition, curator Lawry Smith, Marlen Gallery, NYC, 10/1999
Anniversary Rotation, curator Lawry Smith, Marlen Gallery, NYC, 7/1999
‘The Living Museum’ film screening/art exhibition, curator Dr. Janos Marton, The Director’s Guild, NYC, 6/1999
Second Annual Mermaid Show, curator Jim Pinney, Right Bank Café, Brooklyn, NY,6/1999
Pier Show 7, curators Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY, 5/1999
Small Works on Paper, curator Jim Pinney, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY, 5/1999
Bridging Art & Ability, curator Jim Pinney, Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY, 3/1999
Be Realistic, Ask for the Impossible, Living Museum Open House, curator Dr. Janos Marton, Creedmoor Psychiatric Center- Queens Village, NY, 1/1998
NAMH Mental Health Exhibition 2, curators National Artists for Mental Health, Cast Iron Gallery, NYC, 9/1997
NAMH Mental Health Exhibition, curators National Artists for Mental Health, Legislative Office Building, Albany, NY, 5/1997
The Diversified Mind 2 (solo show), curators National Artists for Mental Health, Expressive Arts Center and Gallery, Greene County, Catskill, NY, 3/1997
The Diversified Mind (solo show), curator Rebecca Goyette, Independent Arts Gallery, Queens, NY, 11/1996
Studio 64, curators Poverty Awareness Coalition, Pier 64, NYC, 9/1996
The Odyssey, curators Keith Duncan/Iris Berman, Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center, NYC, 9/1996
Broke Heart, curator Rebecca Goyette, Independent Arts Gallery, Queens, NY, 5/1995
Other Notable Exposure:
Short story ‘Woody Guthrie’s Brain’ featured in Mad Studies Reader: Interdisciplinary Innovations in Mental Health, published by Routledge Press, 9/2024
The Creative Mind & Mental Illness: symposium and art exhibition where he shared the virtual lectern with Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison. Sponsored by Fountain House Gallery, 5/2021
Author of The Hospital Always Wins: A Memoir, published by Chicago Review Press 6/2016. The book has the notable distinction of being the first work published by an African American written from behind the walls of a mental institution. It was met with highly favorable reviews, interviews on multiple radio outlets including NPR, international press and a best summer read recommendation in Oprah Winfrey’s ‘O’ Magazine, 7/2016
Artwork published in The Perch, Yale University’s Arts & Literary Journal, volume 2, spring 2015
Featured artist in documentary/independent film That Which Is Possible, a film about The Living Museum by filmmaker Michael Gitlin, 2/2015
Subject of hour-long audio story The Hospital Always Wins produced by National Public Radio’s State of the Re: Union, 10/2013. Program won the 2104 Edward R. Murrow Award for Best News Documentary and the 2014 Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Director’s Choice Award
Featured artist on Queens Public Television program Journeys, 10/2013
Subject and participant in a doctoral presentation about his life in art and healing at the New York State Psychological Association Annual Convention, Saratoga, NY 6/2012
Speaker at International Conference on Body Image and Identity in Contemporary Society, CUNY Grad Center, NYC, 4/2011
Artist-in-residence for Loaded Goat Records, painting numerous CD cover and merchandise designs for releases by North Carolina musicians The Spongetones, Jamie Hoover, and Steve Stoeckel, 2008 to the present
Featured artist in HBO documentary The Living Museum, directed by Academy Award winner Jessica Yu, spotlighting the achievements and participants of the open studio/program, 6/1999
Featured artist on German Public Television program ‘Selbstbestimmt’ (Self-determined), 3/1997
Recipient of Individual Artist Fund from New York State/Queens Council of the Arts, 1996