Mariane Ibrahim-Lenhardt is a Somali-French

art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationsh ...

based in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. She runs the

eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

Mariane Ibrahim Gallery.

Early life and career

Mariane Ibrahim Abdi was born in

Nouméa Nouméa () is the capital and largest city of the French Sui generis collectivity, special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest Francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main i ...

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

and grew up in

Somaliland Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country in the Horn of Africa. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, E ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. She studied advertising in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and worked in

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. In the early 2000s, a trip to Paris started her interest in contemporary African art after she saw a photograph by

Seydou Keïta Seydou Keïta (1921/23 – 21 November 2001) was a Malian photographer known for his portraits of people and families he took at his portrait photography studio in Mali's capital, Bamako, in the 1950s. His photographs are widely acknowledged not ...

being sold.

Gallery

In 2012, Ibrahim founded the M. I. A. Gallery in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

as a way to showcase artists from underrepresented regions such as Africa and the Middle East, focusing primarily on African and

African diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from List of ethnic groups of Africa, people from Africa. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the native West Africa, West and Central Africans who were ...

artists. M. I. A. was an acronym for both the phrase "Missing in Art" and her birth name. She opened the gallery with an exhibit of photos from the Malian artist

Malick Sidibé Malick Sidibé (1935 – 14 April 2016) was a Malian photographer from a Fulani ( Fula) village in Soloba, who was noted for his black-and-white studies of popular culture in the 1960s in Bamako, Mali. Sidibé had a long and fruitful career as ...

. By 2015, she served on the selection committee for the second Seattle Art Fair. In 2017, Ibrahim won the first Presents booth prize at The Armory Show for her exhibition of photography and textile artist, Zohra Opoku. The gallery's name was changed to Mariane Ibrahim Gallery and in September 2019 Ibrahim moved her gallery to Chicago, Illinois in the West Town neighborhood. She opened the new gallery with an exhibition of Ayana V. Jackson's photography titled, "Take Me to the Water," which explored African water spirits. In 2021, a second space opened in a renovated three-story space on Avenue Matignon in Paris’s 8th arrondissement. In 2022, the gallery announced plans to add a two-level, exhibition space in Mexico City’s

Cuauhtémoc Cuauhtémoc (, ), also known as Cuauhtemotzín, Guatimozín, or Guatémoc, was the Aztec ruler ('' tlatoani'') of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521, and the last Aztec Emperor. The name Cuauhtemōc means "one who has descended like an eagle", an ...

neighborhood. In 2023, Jackson's work was again prominently showcased at Ibrahim's gallery in Mexico City, following a major exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Among others, Mariane Ibrahim's gallery has represented artists including

Amoako Boafo Thomas Amoako Boafo, known as Amoako Boafo (born 10 May 1984), is a Ghanaian painter and visual artist. Early life and education Boafo was born and raised in Osu, in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. He attended the Ghanatta College of Art and ...

, Florine Démosthène, Clotilde Jiménez,

Thenjiwe Nkosi Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi (born 1980) is a South African-American painter and multi-media artist. In 2019, she won the 15th Tollmand Award, an annual South African award for visual artist. Early years and education Nkosi was born in 1980 in New York ...

, Zohra Opoku,

Ferrari Sheppard Ferrari Sheppard (born 1983) is an American artist. His artistic style is influenced by Willem de Kooning, Cy Twombly and Joan Mitchell, as well as Harlem Renaissance figures like Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden. Sheppard is also a membe ...

, and Lina Iris Viktor.

Controversy

In 2018, Ibrahim supported artist Lina Iris Viktor in a lawsuit against rapper

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first music ...

and R&B star

SZA Solána Imani Rowe (born November 8, 1989), known professionally as SZA ( ), is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her diaristic lyrics and genre explorations, she has been credited as a prominent figure in influencing contemporary R& ...

over allegations that a music video for their song “

All the Stars "All the Stars" is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar and American singer SZA. Written alongside Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith and producers Sounwave and Al Shux, the song was released on January 4, 2018, as the lead single to the soundtrac ...

” — featured on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

to the movie

Black Panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

— drew from Viktor’s work without permission. The parties later agreed to settle on terms that could not be discussed as part of the agreement, though not before 10 months of high-profile media attention was paid to issues surrounding artists’ rights.Andy Battaglia (9 September 2019)
‘It’s a Rip-Off’: Mariane Ibrahim Gallery Takes on Shipping Company Over Lost Artwork ‘It’s a Rip-Off’: Mariane Ibrahim Gallery Takes on Shipping Company Over Lost Artwork
''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...

''.

Personal life

Ibrahim is married to Pierre Lenhardt. She is Muslim.

References

French art dealers New Caledonian women {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibrahim, Mariane Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Nouméa French people of Somali descent