Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, also known as Cheik Nadro (11 March 1923 – 28 January 2014), was an Ivorian artist.
Bouabré was born in Zépréguhé, Ivory Coast, and was among the first Ivorians to be educated by the French colonial government. On 11 March 1948, he received a vision, which directly influenced much of his later works. Bouabré created many of his hundreds of small drawings while working as a clerk in various government offices. These drawings depicted many different subjects, mostly drawn from local folklore; some also described his own visions. All the drawings are part of a larger cycle, titled World Knowledge. Bouabré also created a 448-letter, universal Bété syllabary, which he used to transcribe the oral tradition of his people, the Bétés. His visual language is portrayed on some 1,000 small cards using ballpoint pens and crayons, with symbolic imagery surrounded by text, each carrying a unique divinatory message and comments on life and history.
Many of Bouabré's drawings are in The Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC) of Meshac Gaba. One of his emblematic drawings is saved in the L'appartement 22 collection on the African continent: "Une divine peinture relevée sur le corps d'une mandarine jaunie", made by Bouabré in 1994 in Abidjan.
2022: Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound, Museum of Modern Art, New York
2013: Venice Biennale, Italy
2012: Inventing the world: the artist as citizen, Biennale Bénin, Cotonou, Bénin
2010–2011: Tate Modern, London, UK
2010: African Stories, Marrakech Art Fair, Marrakech
2007: Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
2007: Why Africa?, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin, Italy
2006: 100% Africa, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
2005: Arts of Africa, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, France
2004–2007: Africa Remix, the touring show started on 24 July 2004 at the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf (Germany), and travelled to the Hayward Gallery in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.