Ivory Coast artist Aboudia – ‘I’m not shocked I’m a best-seller’

Back in September, global art experts were taken aback by the name topping a fresh list of the world’s best-selling artists.

Aboudia, a graffiti-inspired artist from Ivory Coast, had beaten well-known names, like Damian Hirst and Banksy, to sell the most pieces at auction the previous year.

According to the Hiscox Artist Top 100, Aboudia, real name Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, had flogged 75 lots. One of these canvasses had gone for £504,000 (£640,000).

Leading online marketplace Artsy called Aboudia’s triumph “striking”, external, while The Guardian said market experts were “blindsided”, external by the ranking.

Months later, sat in a London gallery plastered with his paintings, Aboudia tells me the survey results were “no surprise” to him.

“Because if you work hard, the success is going to come,” he says, dressed entirely in black save for wristfulls of beaded bracelets.

“The first thing is your work… after, everything comes home.”

Aboudia’s mellow disposition clashes with the art surrounding him – his vividly coloured, heavily layered canvases feature a cast of cartoon-like figures plucked from the streets of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest city.

Through a blend of oil sticks, acrylic paints and recycled materials like newspapers, Aboudia depicts the hardships of life in downtown Abidjan. He particularly focuses on the children who live and work on the city’s streets.

His eyewitness portrayals of Ivory Coast’s 2011 civil war are equally arresting. Figures gaze at the viewer with vacant eyes, while armed soldiers and skulls crank up the intensity.

Aboudia says that today, there’s a misconception that his rise to the top “came quickly”.

“No – I worked like 15 or 10 years for that.”