Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, 1983

In March 2011, Ivory Coast was once again plunged into civil war.

The incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo clung to power despite losing a general election, and rebel forces stormed towns and cities attempting to oust him.

As the militias clashed, a 26-year-old artist, Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, remained in the blood-soaked Ivorian capital of Abidjan. There he painted and sketched a record of the chaos and violence surrounding him — from the armed forces skirmishing on the streets to the tags children scrawled on walls to delimit turf.

Since then, Aboudia has been acclaimed for his canvases documenting the battle for Abidjan. In June of the same year he exhibited for the first time in London, and his work is now included in major international collections, including the Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC) of Jean Pigozzi, the Frank Cohen Collection in London, and the Saatchi Collection in New York.

Aboudia has exhibited in Europe and the USA and was invited to take part in a conference organised by the Goethe-Institut in South Africa on the role of art in times of war. Together with other artists from Ivory Coast, he participated in the Biennial of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal.

His large-format canvases are populated by frightening skull-like faces with popping eyes and gaping mouths, swirling amid impasto brush strokes that recall the expressive qualities of Jean-Michel Basquiat. The claustrophobia and fear of being hemmed into a city at war with itself is palpable, and these canvases remain a striking reminder of the power of art.

source: DAZED