RICHMOND, Virginia – An exhibition by an artist whose work is influenced by his time in the United States and Egypt is now on display in Richmond.

The VCU Institute of Contemporary Art is located at 912 West Grace Street on the VCU campus. Visitors will have the chance to see exhibitions by artists from different countries who are exhibiting their work for the first time in the United States.

For many of them, it is the first time that their art will be presented in a museum.

“The exhibition is the work of an artist called Ibrahim Ahmed. The title of the exhibition is It Always Comes Back To You,” said Dominic Willsdon, the executive director.

Much of Ibrahim’s work is drawn from his life story: growing up in the Middle East, living in New Jersey, and returning to Egypt where his family is from.

“So the work behind me is made up of all kinds of different American symbols that you can find on the streets of his neighborhood on the outskirts of Cairo,” Willsdon said.

“And for Ibrahim, it all was sort of how the image of America permeates ordinary life in cities around the world, in the Middle East, in Africa and in other places,” Willsdon said. .

Ibrahim uses mixed media, sculptures, textiles, photographs and self-portraits of himself and his father in this exhibition. There are two unique pieces in the exhibition, hundreds of fabrics compressed into dense bricks and a chandelier made of materials.

To see and learn more about Ibrahim Ahmed’s exhibition, visit the Institute of Contemporary Art at VCU. The exhibition will run until November 7.