Untitled

Armand Boua’s work confronts the social and political struggles in his hometown of Abidjan on Africa’s Ivory Coast. In particular, he responds to issues surrounding child abduction and separation: a phenomenon that become increasingly widespread in the violent aftermath of the disputed Ivorian presidential election in 2010. Executed on found materials, his works feature forlorn, lost figures, drawn from scenes witnessed in the city’s streets and slums. In Untitled (2013), the artist layers paint and tar onto flattened cardboard, scraping away the surface to reveal shadowy human fragments. The result is a raw, gestural language caught between figuration and abstraction, reminiscent of faded graffiti, peeling posters or protest placards. The work was included in the Saatchi Gallery’s 2015 exhibition Pangaea II: New Art From Africa and Latin America; other examples of his practice are held in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.