Ivorian painter Aboudia draws on the political upheaval of his native country to conjure phantasmagorical visions in paint and crayon. The artist’s home city of Abidjan has been the site of ongoing violence and unrest since a post-electoral crisis in 2011 sparked a new civil war in the region. Executed that year, Djoly du Mogoba is a monumental vision that speaks directly to this turmoil, capturing the raw, graffiti-inspired vitality of the artist’s brushwork. Striving to give a crucial voice to inhabitants suppressed by war and revolution, Aboudia has proclaimed, ‘I’m an ambassador of the children – they do writings on the wall, their wishes, their fears, I’m doing the same on my canvas. I’m like a megaphone for these children’. Featured in the Saatchi Gallery’s exhibition Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America in 2014 – in which the present work was included – the artist has since shown internationally at institutions including the Royal Academy of Arts, London and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel.