Isshaq Ismail: Allure
HdM Gallery, Beijing
20 September - 11 October 2022
Born in 1989 in Accra, Ghana, where he still lives and works, Isshaq Ismail is one of the most original figurative artists to have emerged from the African continent. Describing his portraits as “infantile semi-abstraction”, Ismail’s artistic practice tries to reduce the human figure to its most basic characteristics. He uses thick patches of bold colors dominating the surface of the canvas to give the impression of larger-than-life beings that are endowed with an almost three-dimensional aspect. Painted in red, purple, black or maroon, they question the audience’s expectation of figurative depiction and instead create the impression of a parallel world peopled with grotesque creatures both similar to human beings but different in appearance.
Isshaq Ismail’s influences are many and varied. The legacy of modern art and its deconstruction of the human figure obviously comes to mind, as are the menacing features of African ritual masks. Finally, the Western tradition of silhouette portraits and caricature also looms large when one attempts to interpret Ismail’s figures. Isshaq Ismail has declared in the past that he is “interested in breaking the mould of painting by subverting and interrogating the preconceived notion of the idea of beauty within the canon of painting, and challenging the perception of aesthetics”.
A graduate from the Ghanatta College of Art and Design (Accra, Ghana), Isshaq Ismail has already been widely exhibited. Besides a solo show at Nicholas Roman Fine Art, New York, he has participated in group shows at Christies New York, Ross-Sutton Gallery, Choose Gallery (Stuttgart, Germany), Ghana’s National Museum and Absa Gallery (Johannesburg, South Africa).
HdM GALLERY
798 Art District, No.4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, 100015 Beijing
______________
