Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, known as Aboudia, chronicles the street scene in his city of Abidjan, the capital of Côte d’Ivoire. In his vibrant, large-scale mixed-media paintings and drawings, which recall those of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Aboudia takes inspiration from the aesthetics of graffiti and traditional African carvings. He has depicted youths in his city’s toughest neighborhoods and the violent post-election conflict that ravaged Abidjan in 2011. While his recurring skull, soldier, and bullet motifs speak to unthinkable trauma and brutality, Aboudia’s bright color palettes reinforce the enduring innocence of the children who live amid the chaos. Aboudia has exhibited widely across Côte d’Ivoire and in London, Paris, New York, and Marrakesh, among other cities. His work has been acquired by Saatchi Gallery, the Jean Pigozzi Collection of African Art, and the Nevada Museum of Art, and on the secondary market, it has sold for six figures.

Space776 exhibits early to mid-career artists who work in a variety of mediums ranging from live multimedia performance art to traditional oil painting. The gallery accommodates artists from around the globe, taking their works to local and international art fairs such as Volta New York, Volta Basel, Art Miami, Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary, and Art Busan. Space776 was founded in Bushwick, Brooklyn in 2013. In 2020, the gallery relocated to its current residence at 37-39 Clinton Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Space776 also opened a location in Seoul, South Korea in 2020 in accordance with the gallery’s mission to promote the international exchange between local New York artists and the Korean artistic sphere.