About

Born and raised in Beirut, Ibrahim Sultani (1996) is a self-taught artist based in Los Angeles, California. He has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Lebanese American University (2019). 

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He's had an avid passion for drawing since the age of 4, and in recent years he rose to prominence because of his work on the Lebanese currency. Inspired by vintage bills, pop culture figures, and an Andy Warhol quote, he chose banknotes as his canvas on which he painted notable Lebanese figures in a symbolic approach to make the local currency valuable again. As a result, he gained local and regional acknowledgment by being featured in leading media outlets, newspapers, magazines, and TV channels. Local attention to his work lead him to participate in multiple exhibitions featuring renowned Middle Eastern artists in which he was the youngest participating artist.
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Shortly after graduating from LAU, Ibrahim moved to the United States; the country that has the biggest influence on pop culture. He looked more into notions that fascinate him most: pop art, the allure of celebrity, America’s love of consumerism, and mass culture. Andy Warhol argued that we live in a society in which individuals are seen as a product that we consume. With these ideas in mind came to life the idea of painting pop culture icons on Monopoly bills. Banknotes are usually decorated with mottos, emblems, and historical figures as a tangible form to symbolize a society’s identity, however, Sultani's Monopoly bills are decorated with pop culture figures.