We were lucky to catch up with Issa Ibrahim recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Issa, thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

There was a time in my career where I created a body of work consisting of subversive, and at times perverse, depictions of pop cultural icons, most notably Marvel & DC superheroes. This was all before the Disney merger and overexposure. What I was putting across was appreciated by a few free-thinkers and cynics like me, but often confounded the true-believers still steeped in the source material. It was only as the Marvel films appeared and with them a new, arch and irreverent way of relating to these time-tested characters that my body of work found its audience. I’ve sold all but a couple of “hard sells” which was gratifying, as well as knowing that my sensibilities were prescient. Still, I remember the lecherous laughs, shaking heads and derision of my work as “perverted”, “dirty” and inappropriate, those naysayers not realizing that I was using the childhood icons in adult situations of ill-repute as a reflection of the current culture and the pornification of our youth. My take away is to be fearless as a creative. The world may not be ready for you, but when they catch up the validation is priceless.

Issa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was the youngest child of five born to jazz musician Jamil Ibrahim and artist Audrey Jacobs-Ibrahim. I am an African American visual artist, author, musician, and filmmaker born and raised in Jamaica, Queens, New York. Creating art since early childhood, I was educated at Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design and studied at the Art Students League. My story truly began with the development of serious mental illness in 1989 and continued through struggle, insanity, and a 19-year institutionalization, winning my release in 2009. My art career was buoyed by appearances in a 1999 HBO documentary, an award-winning 2013 NPR audio story and the publishing of my memoir ‘The Hospital Always Wins’ in 2016 with Chicago Review Press. 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.
My art making and body of work is centered on my personal experiences as a BIPOC artist suffering from severe mental illness. I critique contemporary culture and racism through a mental health lens, employing familiar tropes and icons before discarding it all as bankrupt. Under the tutelage of Polish installation artist Bolek Greczyinski, I became a 30-year artist-in-residence at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center’s Living Museum. I am also a proud member artist with Fountain House Gallery in New York City; the premier gallery dedicated to promoting the artwork of artists with mental health challenges. I am happy to belong to the outsider artist community and will continue to challenge preconceived and prejudicial ideas in society, combat stigma, expose the realities of our broken societal system and explore how openness can aid in respecting psychiatric sufferers and survivors of racism who are our fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, friends, neighbors and ourselves.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience is my superpower. Having to spend almost 20 years in a mental asylum and continue to stay creatively alive, and even thrive, is no small feat. Granted, I had the benefit of a world renown art/rehabilitation program for much of that time. But there were also long stretches of artwork confiscated by administration looking for “pathology” in order to re-diagnose, paintings done in laundry rooms off-hours, late-night bedroom music recording sessions on a smuggled in portable studio, and plenty more strikes and counter strikes against a system not accustomed to having a prodigious artist in their charge.
While the powers that be saw me as nuisance and troublemaker, my feeling was if I am to be in an asylum possibly for the rest of my life then I’m going to go down swinging. When contemplating purchasing and smuggling in new art supplies or recording equipment up to my room I often squashed the internal debate with the mantra, “If not now, when?”

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have come to understand that creatives, artists in particular and historically, have been the stewards of truth. And it was often a thankless job, if it was a job at all. And now more than ever, where lies flow like wine and history is being erased and remade, we need truth tellers desperately. For ourselves and more importantly for our children and grandchildren. Even if the words on paper of a dusty book or the images on an old canvas are only bread crumbs leading future generations to a different and better way of being than we obviously couldn’t fulfill for ourselves.
Truth, kindness, and dedication to service are what it’s all about. Providing a light for the many who are in darkness. Creating something with wit, whimsy and warning, entertaining with enlightenment. Using the gifts that my creator gave me and that my parents nurtured to try to save my soul and in that process also try to save others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.issaibrahim.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/issaibrahim065/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/issa.ibrahim.12
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@IssaIbrahim