Mariane Ibrahim
Mariane Ibrahim-Lenhardt is a Somali-French art dealer based in Chicago, Illinois. She runs the eponymous Mariane Ibrahim Gallery. Life and career. Mariane Ibrahim Abdi was born in Nouméa, New Caledonia and grew up in Somalia and France. She studied advertising in London and worked in marketing in the United Kingdom. In the early 2000s, a trip to Paris started her interest in contemporary African art after she saw a photograph by Seydou Keïta being sold. In 2012, she founded the M. I. A. Gallery in Seattle as a way to showcase artists from underrepresented regions such  as Africa and the Middle East, focusing primarily on African and African diaspora 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. In 2017, Ibrahim won the first Presents booth prize at The Armory Show for her exhibition of photography and textile artist, Zohra Opoku. Her gallery's name was changed to Mariane Ibrahim Gallery and in September 2019 she 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. Personal life. Ibrahim is married to Pierre Lenhardt. She is Muslim.