Ibrahim Ahmed

Through analyzing the immigrant experience, Ibrahim Ahmed III’s work examines several levels of identity. The first is the dual/hybridized/transparent identity of the immigrant, which has been a personal struggle since his migration to the United States in the late 1990’s from Bahrain. The second is the loss of identity through the loss of his native language, Arabic. Ahmed explores these themes by utilizing primitive printmaking techniques of pressing paper (because we read and write on paper) to a series of selected Arabic words, which he paints in black (since we learn from textbooks, which are predominantly printed in the same shades) on the wall in a Calligraphic style to create a print. He selects specific words, ones that represent a social norm/identity that is native to his home land. For example the word “man,” which in the United States carries a different social context as opposed to its Middle Eastern counterpart. During this process the Arabic words, which are written right to left, reverse when removed from the wall, thus representing an Anglicization of the Arabic language. Their new forms become a product of dualities, two surfaces compressing the paint to create a new formed word/identity. The reversed abstracted words take on a new perception, which by following the example of the word “man” once anglicized, takes on both western and eastern meanings.

Ahmed has had solo exhibitions at Aferro Gallery in Newark, Artellewa Art Space in Giza, and Solo(s) Project House in Newark. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Gallery Nosco in Rio De Janeiro, Openings Collective in New York, Anonymous Gallery in New York, Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall University in South Orange, and Newark Public Library, among other venues.

Courtesy of the artist