Aboudia
WORKS EXHIBITIONS BIOGRAPHY
ART WORKS
(Filani) Les jumeaux
Bakary mourou
Graffitis à Treiche Town
La famille Marguerite
Noutchi d'abobo
Les deux freres et le poisson bleu
La famille noutchi réconciliée
Composition noutchi
Les grosses tetes
La petite aminata
EXHIBITIONS
Once upon a time in West Africa
june 04 to aug 20 2022
Aboudia & Yeanzi “in transit”
oct 01 to nov 20 2022
AFRICAN VIBE
june 17 to july 30 2020
REVERSED SAFARI
july 13 to sep 03 2023
THE DREAMS OF A STORY
april 23 to nov 27 2022
Africa Staged
july 10 to aug 22 2021
Africa Tunes
jan 20 to march 17 2024
BIOGRAPHY
Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, Aboudia, was born on October 21, 1983 in Abendourou, 200km from Abidjan and is a contemporary American-Ivorian artist. 

He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works between Abidjan and New York. He approached art when he was in primary school. Since the age of 15, Abdoulaye has been alone as an artist. He was kicked out of his childhood home by his father when it became known that Abdoulaye wanted to become an artist.

His mother gave him the last of his savings to complete a scholarship. 

In 2003 he graduated from the School of Applied Arts  in Bingerville and in 2005 he graduated from the Institut des Arts in Abidjan. 
Between 2007 and 2008 Aboudia marched around Bingerville and the center of Abidjan and their circuit of galleries, not finding success. In the same years, foreign collectors and gallerists begin to buy his works.

The political tensions of the country of those years allowed him to produce many works: he first  reached an international audience during the siege of Abidjan in 2011, when the conflict approached his studio. 

He collaborates with internationally renowned artists such as Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (2012) and Christian Furr (2017) producing works in New York, London and Abidjan. In 2012 and 2014, Abdoulaye’s work was exhibited in the Ivory Coast, Aboudia is influenced by a synthesis of  American avant-garde traditions and graffiti in the communities in which he lives.

Many in the art world relate his work to that of Jean-Michel Basquiat, as both mix African-American connotations in their paintings. 
In fact, Aboudia’s work uses both indirect and direct references to African and Western styles. While some artists chose to flee the civil war, Aboudia decided to stay and continue working despite the danger.

Many of his paintings are in fact the result of what the war had brought, and that left us hopeful, imagine, even if he never wanted to define himself as a “war painter”. 

Some of his paintings were also inspired by footage he saw on the news or on the Internet. His body of work, which he describes as “nouchi”, is a tribute to the essence of dreams and language.

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Much of his work, which is seen as too avant-garde for local Ivorian tastes, has depopulated the rest of the world.  The disapproval of his people did not deflect his decision to represent this national crisis in his paintings.

After the outbreak of war, the themes of his painting changed. Now, he returns to his original themes which are childhood in the streets, poverty and child soldiers. Some of his works have been exhibited in Basel, Miami, New York, Singapore and Art Central in Hong Kong. He has also made various solo exhibitions with galleries in New York, London, Barcelona, Copenhagen and more.
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