‘Abidjan has the money, but Dakar has the taste.’ This quip has become a favorite among Senegalese art cognoscenti, particularly during Dakar’s Biennale of Contemporary African Art. Yet while Abidjan may lack the institutional heft and market maturity of its West African rival, talent flourishes in the Ivory Coast’s economic capital. And its residents are determined to prove it.

Money, as it happens, is not a bad place to start. In recent years, Abidjan has witnessed a burgeoning collector class – some choosy, others voracious. It’s no longer uncommon to find red dots proliferating across gallery walls before the champagne at the opening has gone flat. More significantly, the buyer demographic has shifted: younger, more female, and – crucially – more Ivorian. While international collectors once dominated the market with their appetite for traditional African art, a new patriotic fervor has emerged. What better way to prevent the exodus of cultural patrimony to America and Europe than to buy locally? For this emerging generation, contemporary art has supplanted traditional masks as the collectible du jour.

It’s therefore only half surprising that galleries have sprouted up across Abidjan like mushrooms after rain. Recent additions include Galerie Farah Fakhri in Le Plateau (opened 2023), Windsor Gallery at the Sofitel Abidjan Hôtel Ivoire (2022), and WALLS House of Art in Marcory (2019). They follow in the footsteps of pioneers from the 1990s and 2000s, notably Simone Guirandou Ndiaye, who established Arts Pluriels in 1991 as one of the first Ivorian galleries to bridge traditional and contemporary art. Then there’s Yacouba Konaté, who in 2006 was the Artistic Director of the Dakar Biennale, and who founded La Rotonde des Arts contemporains in Le Plateau in 2009. Other stalwarts include Jean Léon N’Guetta of Galerie Amani, Sandrine Marmissolle Mesquida of Eureka Galerie, Illa Donwahi of the Fondation Donwahi, and Cécile Fakhoury, whose eponymous gallery enjoys the strongest international presence. ‘I’ve witnessed a real evolution in the Ivory Coast’s art scene over the past five years,’ Fakhoury notes. ‘There’s an increasing number of galleries, artists settling here, visitors, and local collectors.’

Indeed, it was Fakhoury who, in 2012, helped orchestrate one of Ivorian contemporary art’s most compelling success stories. She paired the young painter Aboudia with the internationally acclaimed elder statesman Frédéric Bruly Bouabré. The exhibition’s apt title translates to ‘Today, I’m Working with My Grandson, Aboudia.’ It was a bold gambit for Bouabré, like Youssouf Bath, Christian Lattier, Ouattara Watts, Stenka, and Paul Kodjo (the iconic chronicler of Abidjan’s nightlife), belongs to the pantheon of Ivorian artists who had long commanded the attention of the global art world. The risk paid off: Aboudia, who had already begun showing in London, found validation at home, and saw his international career soar. His canvases now command nearly half a million euros, making him one of the most commercially successful artists in the Ivorian diaspora.

The economic capital draws artists not only from across the country but also from abroad. Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux, a Guadeloupean painter who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and who is now based in Grand-Bassam near Abidjan, caught Fakhoury’s attention on social media. ‘I love being a talent scout, discovering new voices,’ says the gallerist, who exhibited the artist in 2020 before he had even completed his degree, and later dedicated her booth to his work at Art Basel Paris’s second edition in 2023. Deloumeaux’s work explores daily life, mythologies, iconography, beliefs, and the religious and cultural heritage of the Afro-Caribbean landscape.

A few kilometers away, in the same upscale Cocody neighborhood as Fakhoury’s gallery, another establishment has made its mark: LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery, cofounded in 2015 by the pioneer Simone Guirandou Ndiaye and her daughter, Gazelle Guirandou. Their protégé is Obou Gbais, known as ‘Peintre Obou’, who divides his time between Abidjan and Berlin. He has specialized in representations of the Dan mask, from his ethnic group in the western Ivory Coast. Gazelle Guirandou praises his ability to ‘humanize’ this traditional motif through a neo-pop aesthetic. The gallery also nurtures emerging artists like Théophany Adoh, and indeed each local gallery champions its own rising stars: Galerie Amani backs the painter Méné, Illa Donwahi supports Souleymane Konaté, and Sandrine Marmissolle Mesquida represents Yeanzi. Meanwhile, established Ivorian artists like Pascal Konan, James Houra, Ernest Dükü, Armand Boua, Jems Robert Kokobi, and Jacobleu continue to shine in national and international exhibitions.

Each year, Yacouba Konaté orchestrates Abidjan Art Week, bringing together a constellation of galleries, museums, foundations, and art centers from across the city. Its marquee event, La Nuit des Galeries – modeled after Paris’s Nuit des Musées – transforms Abidjan into a nocturnal art festival, drawing both local enthusiasts and cultural tourists. The city has even launched its own auction platform, ABAC (Abidjan Auction Company), helmed by Konaté himself, with a distinctly contemporary twist: The bidding happens primarily online. ‘The goal is to establish African platforms as sales powerhouses, to increase African art’s share of the international market,’ Konaté explains, noting that ‘contemporary African art represents only a tiny fraction of global contemporary art sales.’ To this end, he has created ‘a system to identify promising young artists and connect them with buyers and collectors,’ particularly within Africa.

Since 2020, the state itself has become a patron of contemporary art. ‘The corridors of the new presidential office house between 250 and 300 paintings!’ Konaté enthuses. The Ivorian Minister of Culture and Francophonie, Françoise Remarck, is a regular at vernissages. According to Konaté, she has promised to purchase ‘at least one piece per exhibition.

The public sector, long the laggard, has been struggling to address its shortcomings over the past two decades, particularly the dearth of museums and their state of disrepair. In 2020, the Musée des Cultures Contemporaines Adama Toungara (MuCAT) opened in Abidjan’s populous Abobo district. MuCAT is one of the few public spaces designed to showcase contemporary art collections and exhibitions. Since 2022, it has hosted the annual Africa Foto Fair, organized by Aida Muluneh. For Ivorian photographer Jean Luc Konkobo, known professionally as Perfect Black, ‘Abidjan is emerging as a new art capital through such events,’ reflecting ‘the effervescence and vitality of its artistic scene.’ In photography, Joana Choumali has achieved international recognition, winning the 2019 Pictet Prize for her series ‘Ça va aller’ (2019).

SOMETHING, a hybrid non-commercial space focused on digital and video art, was founded in 2022 by Anna-Alix Koffi. It has become a magnet for artists and audiences alike, currently featuring an exhibition by German artist Carsten Höller. Since opening, the space has hosted luminaries such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Simon Njami, and Emeka Ogboh, as well as Cameroonian curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, who founded of Berlin’s project space SAVVY Contemporary and currently leads the city's Haus der Kulturen der Welt. This creative vitality extends beyond painting, photography, sculpture, and video to a fifth discipline gaining momentum in Abidjan: design, which is finding its way into spaces traditionally reserved for contemporary art. Under the mentorship of Ivorian doyen Jean Servais Somian, young designers like Lisa Colombe Adjobi and Paul Ledron showcased their work at Fondation Donwahi during the 2022 Young Designers Workshop. All three later participated in the 2024 Dakar Biennale, which revived its design section after a 16-year hiatus. ‘The scene is expanding,’ Ledron says with optimism. ‘If this trajectory continues, Abidjan could become the design capital of West Africa.’