The Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama has become the first African to be named the most influential figure in the art world on ArtReview magazine’s annual power list.
Mahama, known for works that reuse found materials such as textile remnants, topped a ranking of the contemporary art world’s most influential people and organisations chosen by a global judging panel. He said he felt humbled, recalling first hearing about the list while studying at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2011, when Ai Weiwei topped the chart.
Based in Tamale in northern Ghana, Mahama said he hoped the recognition would encourage younger Ghanaian artists to see themselves as part of contemporary discourse rather than on its margins.
Mark Rappolt, ArtReview’s editor-in-chief, said Mahama’s selection signalled a shift in power within the art world. Rappolt suggested the change reflects a realignment of global finance and influence, and noted the historical role of the MENA region as a bridge between east and west.
The power list’s top 10 features several artists and curators from the Middle East and Africa. At No. 2 is Sheikha Al‑Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al‑Thani, chair of Qatar Museums since 2006, noted for her vast purchasing power. Last year’s No. 1, Sheikha Hoor al‑Qasimi of the Sharjah Art Foundation, drops to No. 3. Egyptian artist Wael Shawky is No. 4; Singapore’s Ho Tzu Nyen is No. 5; Americans Amy Sherald and Kerry James Marshall are Nos. 6 and 7; Saidiya Hartman is No. 8; Forensic Architecture is No. 9; and Wolfgang Tillmans is No. 10.
Mahama has had a busy few years. Represented by Apalazzo Gallery and White Cube, his practice transforms discarded objects—old hospital beds, decommissioned train carriages and other artefacts—into artworks. At the Edinburgh festival, his project Songs About Roses, about the rise and fall of the railway the British built in Ghana between 1898 and 1923, was described as “as extraordinary as a great magic‑realist novel,” and the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones said its engagement with historical ghosts places Mahama alongside William Kentridge and Anselm Kiefer among today’s important artists.
A few months before the Edinburgh show, Mahama draped the Barbican in 2,000 sq metres of bright pink fabric stitched together on a football field in Ghana because of its size. In 2019 he opened the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art in Tamale, a 900 sq metre space that functions as an exhibition venue, library, residency centre, archive and studio.
Rappolt also highlighted that many top-ranking artists run local programmes. He said Mahama is not a lone genius but someone deeply embedded in his community. Thirty anonymous experts worldwide compiled this year’s ranking, which has been published annually for 24 years.
