Aboudia Ivorian, b. 1983
"Aboudia is the painter of the street child — his canvases overflow with the raw energy of Abidjan's forgotten youth, rendered in a language that owes as much to Basquiat and Dubuffet as it does to the walls of Abobo."
Aboudia (born 1983, Côte d'Ivoire), full name Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, is an Ivorian painter based between Abidjan and Brooklyn whose explosive, graffiti-inflected canvases have established him as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary African art. Drawing on the street imagery, vernacular signs, and figures of Abidjan's working-class neighbourhoods — Abobo, Yopougon, Treichville — he creates dense, layered compositions of hallucinatory energy. His work gained international visibility during the 2011 post-election crisis in Côte d'Ivoire. Represented by Cécile Fakhoury Gallery, his work has been exhibited in New York, London, Basel, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and is held in major international collections.
"I paint what I see — children who play, children who suffer, children who dream on the streets of Abidjan. That is my world, and I put it all on the canvas."
Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, known as Aboudia, was born on 21 October 1983 in Côte d'Ivoire. He studied at the School of Applied Arts in Bingerville (graduating 2003) and then at the Institut des Arts in Abidjan (graduating 2005). From an early stage, he was more drawn to the visual language of the street than to academic tradition: the graffiti, signs, and figures chalked, sprayed, or scratched onto the walls of Abidjan's popular neighbourhoods became his primary visual vocabulary.
His practice is rooted in the concept of "nouchi" — a Nouchi word describing the youth street culture of Abidjan, blending Dioula, French, and invented slang. The street child is his central figure: elusive, resilient, expressive, and above all alive. His canvases are layered with paint, collage, graffiti marks, and gestural energy in a manner that draws comparisons to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jean Dubuffet, though Aboudia's visual world is entirely rooted in the specific reality of Abidjan.
During the post-election crisis of 2011, when violence erupted close to his studio, Aboudia painted through the conflict — producing work that documented the chaos and terror around him with raw, urgent force. These paintings first brought him to international attention. Since then, he has exhibited extensively in New York, London, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Central Hong Kong, and Art Basel Switzerland, and his work has entered significant public and private collections worldwide.
He lives and works between Abidjan and Brooklyn, New York.
Major exhibitions: Cécile Fakhoury Gallery, Abidjan & Paris; Jack Bell Gallery, London; OOA Gallery, Barcelona; Art Basel Miami Beach; Art Central Hong Kong; Art Basel Switzerland.
Works in public and private collections: major international collections in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Selected bibliography: Monica Haven, Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba (monograph), 2015; featured in Artnet, Sotheby's, Artsy, True Africa.