Aboudia’s paintings reflecting on the armed conflict during the 2010 Ivory Coast presidential election are what first brought him under the international spotlight. Western media would often illustrate coverage of the conflict using Aboudia’s works which showed his childlike figures amid skulls, AK-47s, and rocket launchers and surrounded by tanks and shelled buildings all washed in dark, ominous palettes of browns, greys, and the odd green. The combustible energy of Aboudia’s paintings was at fever pitch here.
“Aboudia is a very instinctive artist,” said Cécile Fakhoury, Aboudia’s gallerist in Dakar, Abidjan, and Paris. “He is painting what he is seeing and feeling. His work is very immersive. You can see a kind of repetition, but every move is very sincere. A lot of people are touched by his work because it can be dark, it can be hopeful.”