Isshaq Ismail is a multidisciplinary artist who began his first portraits when he was between 19 and 20 years old. His vibrant, bold, and colourful paintings explore and investigate how the social, cultural, and political aspects of the modern world impact identity. Ismail paints faces and figures in impasto, typically depicting them with accentuated grotesque features and using black, brown, ochre, and red hues. His portraits also reflect his interest in themes such as desire, resilience, power, joy, and hope; they tell stories and universal truths about societies around the world. 

The relationship to painting is experienced as something organic for the artist; a place of expression and a means of escaping loneliness. Art gives him comfort and autonomy in the expression of himself. He attended Ghanatta College of Arts and Design, where he studied from 2009 to 2012. He has exhibited in France, the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa, USA, and his native country Ghana.