PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: TAKING THE PULSE OF THE MOMENT, ISSA IBRAHIM IMAGINES A NEWSPAPER THAT DARES TO TELL THE TRUTH

THE NEW YORK-BASED PAINTER IS PROCESSING HIS REACTIONS TO THE NEW DYSTOPIA THROUGH SOME PUNCHY, SATIRICAL IMAGES

Published on May 18, 2025

by Edward M. Gómez

We first met the New York-based artist Issa Ibrahim earlier this year, when he was preparing to show some of his recent works in the booth of Fountain House Gallery at the 2025 Outsider Art Fair. (That fair took place in New York at the beginning of March.)

At that time, we noted that Ibrahim is known for his paintings, some of which feel mysterious, edgy, and provocative. Some of the other images he conjures up feel psychologically intense. Much of Ibrahim’s art springs from his reflections about his life’s experiences, some of which have been traumatic. His imagery can be incisively political, too; he does not shy away from addressing some of the urgent issues of our current, tempestuous times.

Issa Ibrahim, “Revelation 13: The Beast,” 2025, acrylic and collage on canvas, 8 x 10 inches (25.4 x 20.32 centimeters). Photo courtesy of the artist

Ibrahim, who was born in 1965, grew up in the New York City borough of Queens. He told brutjournal, “My father was a professional musician as well as an artist, and my mother was an artist specializing in graphic design, so I was exposed to the arts since birth. Later, when it was discovered that I had a gift for rendering, I was met by boundless encouragement from my parents and their artist friends.” Ibrahim attended New York City’s High School of Art and Design and later was affected by mental illness that led him to be sent to a psychiatric hospital. He spent a long time as an institutionalized psychiatric patient.

During that period, he produced so-called therapy art but he also began looking critically at authority figures and power structures in his surroundings and thinking about how they influenced his life.

Issa Ibrahim, “Money All Over the Map,” 2025, collage elements and acrylic on canvas board, 24 x 36 inches (60.96 x 91.44 centimeters). Photo courtesy of the artist

Today, Ibrahim is associated with Fountain House Gallery in New York City, an organization, venue, and creative community that showcases the productions of artists with disabilities and/or who have survived tough experiences and are rebuilding their lives.

Like many artists in the United States and elsewhere today, Ibrahim has been paying attention to the various economic, political, social, and cultural forces that are fueling the trends that are shaping the world in unsettling and destructive ways.

Regarding our “New Dystopia” theme and the art he has been producing lately in response to what he has been observing and reacting to in the news, Ibrahim sketched out a dystopian vision that he has imagined.

Issa Ibrahim, “Enter The Dragon,” 2025, oil, acrylic, and collage elements on canvas, 24 x 36 inches (60.96 x 91.44 centimeters). Photo courtesy of the artist

Describing it, he said, “I believe that there exists a [kind of] mass-hypnotic crowd control, something that could be called an ‘efficiency system,’ in which members of a power nexus create a heaven on Earth for themselves and an elite population. This ‘master race,’ which is rotten to the roots of its forebears, are poisoned by greed and driven insane by [their] generational misdeeds and suppressed guilt.”

Ibrahim added that, in this disturbing, imaginary scenario, “The rest of us get to watch and desire the ‘master race’s’ debauched lifestyle on our devices, passively allowing it to exist as we’re trapped in our own insanity and as we become sick and die in various levels of poverty.”

Issa Ibrahim, “Playbill — It’s a Money Thang,” 2025, collage elements and acrylic on canvas, 7 x 5 inches (17.78 x 12.7 centimeters). Photo courtesy of the artist

In his recent artworks, Ibrahim explained, “I’ve chronicled these abominations channeled through current events, imagining myself as the editor in chief, staff artist, cook, and bottle washer of a mock news service called ‘The Daily Play.’ This vision pays homage to 20th-century newspapers, which, now, have become almost obsolete, and also offers commentary on the ascendancy and unreliability of televised and online news while imagining the apocalypse with whimsy and warning. My work and its focus offer a compendium of satirical world and local news; dubious business and real-estate reports; faux arts, sports, and human-interest features; mock commercials; and musical vignettes with bitterly amusing takes on our bankrupt culture.”

Some of these recent paintings that Ibrahim has created are reproduced here.

Issa Ibrahim, detail of the front page of the artist’s imaginary newspaper, “The Daily Play,” 2025. Photo courtesy of the artist

Artworks by Issa Ibrahim, above and below: article headlines and illustrations on pages of the artist’s imaginary newspaper, “The Daily Play,” 2025. Photos courtesy of the artist