Iman Issa
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany
8 October 2025 - 31 January 2026
Hamburger Kunsthalle is among Germany’s most important public institutions, and displays art from the Middle Ages until today. Through its permanent collection and special exhibitions, its mission lies in the education of publics of all ages and cultures.
Iman Issa (born 1979) is an Egyptian artist who lives and works in Vienna. She studied philosophy, political science, and visual arts at the American University in Cairo, and at the Columbia University, New York. Since 2020, she has been a professor of sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her work examines political and personal associations with history, language and objects. In the works that will be on display at Hamburger Kunsthalle, Issa juxtaposes sculptures with text. The texts each contain a title that has been given to two different photographs. They were taken in different places, by different people, at different times. The photos are present only through their shared title, not the images themselves. Inspired by the titles, the artist created sculptures, making visible her own interpretation of the titles. Paired together, the titles form the label for the sculptures, reflecting the change in meaning of images and their interpretation over time.
She has exhibited at Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Neue Galerie Graz; Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; MoMA, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Belvedere 21, Vienna; MACBA, Barcelona; Perez Art Museum, Miami; 12th Sharjah Biennial; 8th Berlin Biennial; MuHKA, Antwerp; Tensta Konsthall, Spånga; New Museum, New York; and the KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin.
This is her first collaboration with Phileas.
