The Somali-French art dealer bringing Black perspectives to Paris' gallery scene
The CNN Originals series "Nomad with Carlton McCoy" debuts May 1 at 10pm ET/PT. The first episode, filmed in Paris, will include Mariane Ibrahim.When Mariane Ibrahim opened her elegant, new three-story art gallery in Paris last September, she became one of the few Black gallerists to set up shop in the French capital and dedicate the space to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora.
Located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, among other noted galleries and close to landmarks like the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre, the space has featured the otherworldly mixed-media figures of Haitian American artist M. Florine Démosthène and found-image collages by Afro Latino artist Clotilde Jiménez. In April, Ibrahim debuted the European show of Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo, who captures the beauty of Black skin in swirling, lush brushstrokes.
Mariane Ibrahim on the show "Nomad."
The gallery's setting, in a crisp, airy new space, housed inside a historical building designed in classic Haussmann style, was particularly meaningful to her to underscore the importance of the lesser-seen work. "It commands a certain contemplation, when you come in," she said in a phone interview. "I really intended to have a space that is prestigious, that is able to host the art of the future."
Before her homecoming to Paris, Ibrahim has spent the past decade building her US presence through eponymous galleries in Seattle and Chicago, with a focus on African diasporic art. Over the past few years, American museums and galleries have made significant strides in representing Black artists, she said, while art market interest has surged as well. But in Paris, despite France's extensive colonial history with the continent, there are few galleries dedicated to artists of African heritage.
Façade of Mariane Ibrahim Paris. Credit: Courtesy Mariane Ibrahim Gallery
"It's troubling, because we are in 2022, (in) France, a country with such a strong connection to the world in general, but (especially) to Africa, and the Indies, the Caribbean," she said. "There are more African artists who have received museum attention...in the US in the past five years than there has ever been in France in the past 50 years."
Master sommelier Carlton McCoy shares his most memorable drinks
In the forthcoming CNN Originals show "Nomad with Carlton McCoy," in which sommelier Carlton McCoy explores the lesser-seen side of famous cities and countries, Ibrahim joined him and artist Raphaël Barontini for a home-cooked meal in Barontini's studio in Saint-Denis, a suburb, or "banlieue" of Paris. McCoy said in the episode that he had noticed "a distinct lack of Black and Brown perspectives" in the capital's famed museums.
"In France you're exposed to art, but you're exposed to the domination of a culture over others," Ibrahim told him in the episode. "What you are seeing are works of them by them about people like us."
Mariane Ibrahim, Carlton McCoy and Raphaël Barontini on "Nomad."
Ibrahim began collecting Barontini's work in 2019, drawn to the personal connection she felt to his work. Barontini is French, Italian and Caribbean, and Ibrahim felt a kinship to the "hybridity" of his practice, in which he silkscreens heroic African figures into regal compositions redolent of art historical European paintings.
"Constantly people are asking you to choose: What are you? Are you French, are you African?" Ibrahim said. "I refuse to do that. I don't want to choose. I want to be everything."
Though Ibrahim is a pioneer in bringing contemporary African diasporic art to Paris, she believes that others will soon follow.
Paris has "the right audience," she noted. "That's why I'm very, very optimistic about France. I do think Paris is going to be the capital of diversity."
The Somali-French art dealer bringing Black perspectives to Paris' gallery scene
Mariane Ibrahim is bringing new Black perspectives in art to Paris through her recently opened gallery outpost in the French capital.
edition.cnn.com
