Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama received the 2026 Arnold Bode Prize at the Kasseler Kunstverein in Kassel on 29 October 2026. The laudatory address was given by Naomi Beckwith, artistic director of the forthcoming documenta 16, who sits on the board of the Arnold Bode Foundation. The prize, awarded since 1980 in honour of the founder of documenta, carries a purse of €10,000 and recognises outstanding achievement in contemporary art.

Mahama, who is 39, is best known for monumental installations made from stitched-together jute sacks, a material tied to the trade in cocoa and other goods. His work for documenta 14 wrapped Kassel's Torwache gatehouse in sacks that held parts of old locomotives, under the title Check Point Sekondi Loco. 1901-2030, raising questions about colonialism, trade, migration and the global economy. He has since wrapped the Kunsthalle Bern and the Barbican Centre in London in similar fashion, and has shown at the Venice Biennale.

The foundation's citation praised an artist who seeks to shape both the art-historical canon and people's everyday lives. It also singled out the social side of his practice: in Tamale, in northern Ghana, Mahama has founded Red Clay Studio, the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art and Nkrumah Volini, providing residencies, workshops and studio space for other artists.

Kassel's mayor, Sven Schoeller, said Mahama stood for art that touches, challenges and stays in the memory, and that his works leave traces in the city itself. The award comes during a busy period for the artist, whose major exhibition The Harvest Season is on view at the Fondation Cartier in Paris until 28 February 2027. An exhibition connected with the prize is showing at the Kasseler Kunstverein until 1 November 2026.