Armand Boua

Armand Boua, born in Abidjan in 1978, is an Ivorian visual artist whose work powerfully reflects the lives of street children in his hometown. A graduate of the National School of Fine Arts of the Ivory Coast, he uses tar, acrylic, newsprint, and recycled materials—often on cardboard, symbolizing the fragile surfaces orphans sleep on—to create layered, textured portraits that expose the violence and social struggles of West Africa. Balancing raw execution with emotional depth, Boua’s paintings evoke both brutality and tenderness, capturing the resilience of his subjects. His work has been exhibited internationally in London, Dubai, New York, Stockholm, and Abidjan, and is held in the Minneapolis Institute of Art.