American Art Collector Ethan Cohen Presents Renowned Ivorian Artist Aboudia’s Indian Debut at India Art Fair

This year’s India Art Fair witnessed a significant moment with the Indian debut of internationally acclaimed Ivorian artist, Aboudia, courtesy of the Ethan Cohen Gallery.

Renowned for his emotionally charged paintings that delve into personal experiences and observations of post-war life in the Ivory Coast, Aboudia’s work captures the essence of street art and African tribal influences while reflecting on the aftermath of the Second Ivorian Civil War and social inequality.

Aboudia’s artistic journey began with the iconic ‘nouchi’ graffiti style on the streets of Abidjan, where he grew up amidst poverty. His artwork, exhibited by Ethan Cohen Gallery, portrays the struggles and resilience of anonymous street children, bridging the gap between his personal history and the broader human experience.

Championing the cause of vulnerable and innocent children affected by colonialism, globalization, and cultural traditions, Aboudia’s bold lines and vivid colors create a space for contemplation, physicality, and temporal depth, resonating both culturally and universally.

In the tradition of great artists like Pablo Picasso, whose work was profoundly influenced by traditional African art, Aboudia continues to contribute to the global dialogue on the intersections of art, culture, and history. While traditional African art had been a source of abstraction in the human form since 23,000 BCE, it took centuries for the Western art world to properly credit and recognize these achievements.

Ethan Cohen, instrumental in showcasing Aboudia’s works globally, expressed his excitement about the artist’s debut in India. “We have been fortunate to exhibit Aboudia’s masterworks all across the globe. India was one major destination that Aboudia hadn’t debuted yet, and so when my dear friend and artist Yigal Ozeri invited me to accompany him to the India Art Fair 2024, I immediately agreed and also decided to bring select works of Aboudia to the fair,” rejoiced Cohen.

Last year in May, the Ethan Cohen Gallery presented a retrospective exhibition of Aboudia’s work at the Joan Lebold Cohen and Jerome A. Cohen Center for Visual Arts at the KuBe Art Center in Beacon, NY. The retrospective showcased over a decade of Aboudia’s practice as a graffiti artist and painter, spanning from 2006 to 2022.