Iman Issa
Photograph—(Un)Like (M)Any Other(s)
Iman Issa will show and discuss a collection of her works dealing with forms tasked with a function, such as monuments and memorials, historical artifacts, films and photographs documenting historical figures and events—thinking through their presumed legacies, as well as the subject positions they inhabit in their claim to authority on the figures, events and narratives they have come to stand in for.
Iman Issa is an artist and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna . Solo and group exhibitions include the Art Institute in Chicago, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, MoMA, New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 21er Haus, Vienna, MACBA, Barcelona, the Perez Art Museum, Miami, the Whitney Biennial 2019, the 12th Sharjah biennial, the 8th Berlin Biennial, M HKA, Antwerp, Tensta Konsthall, Spånga, New Museum, New York, and KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin. Books include Book of Facts: A Proposition (2017), Common Elements (2015) and Thirty-three Stories about Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places (2011). She has been named a 2017 DAAD artist in residence, and is a recipient of the Ernst Rietschel Prize for Sculpture (2024), Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise (2017), the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2015), HNF-MACBA Award (2012), and the Abraaj Group Art Prize (2013).
“I believe objects have a life of their own, independent of a user or a maker’s intentions, which is what makes them so interesting.”
Iman Issa
BIO
Iman Issa (born 1979) is an Egyptian multidisciplinary artist based in Berlin. Since 2020, she has served as Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Her practice investigates how meaning is constructed through systems of representation and display, with a particular focus on the role of exhibitions within academic and cultural institutions. Issa’s work critically engages with how form, context, and language influence our perception of history, identity, and heritage.
Her work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin), MoMA (New York), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), MACBA (Barcelona), the Perez Art Museum (Miami), MuHKA (Antwerp), and Tensta Konsthall (Spånga). She has also participated in major biennials such as the Whitney Biennial (2019), the 12th Sharjah Biennial, the 8th Berlin Biennial, and the 7th Gwangju Biennale.
Forthcoming solo exhibitions include A Game, or So You Think (3 May – 21 September 2025) at the Art Institute of Chicago, and Das Spiel (7 February – 11 May 2025) at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
Issa is the author of several publications, including Book of Facts: A Proposition (2017), Common Elements (2015), and Thirty-three Stories about Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places (2011).
Her work has been recognised with numerous awards, including the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise (2017), the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2015), the HNF–MACBA Award (2012), and the Abraaj Group Art Prize (2013). In 2017, she was a DAAD artist-in-residence in Berlin.
About FRONT ROW
FRONT ROW is a monthly series of artist’s talks jointly organised by M HKA and NICC. Serving as an open format to artists – whether a talk, a presentation of an idea, a lecture performance – the programme offers the opportunity to reflect on art, culture and society by some of the most thought-provoking artists practising today.
Sit in the FRONT ROW and enjoy a complimentary drink on us.
