Biography, Selected Exhibitions, Artworks and Selected Press
El Anatsui Dossier 2024
El Anatsui
Head-Image
Biography
El Anatsui (b. 1944, Ghana) is an internationally acclaimed artist who transforms simple materials into complex assemblages that create distinctive visual impact. Anatsui uses resources typically discarded such as liquor bottle caps and cassava graters to create sculptures that defy categorisation. Anatsui's use of these materials reflects his interest in reuse, transformation, and an intrinsic desire to connect to his continent while transcending the limitations of place. His work interrogates the history of colonialism and draws connections between consumption, waste and the environment. But at the core of Anatsui's work is his unique formal language that distinguishes his practice.
Anatsui is well-known for large scale sculptures composed of thousands of folded and crumpled pieces of metal sourced from local alcohol recycling stations and bound together with copper wire. These intricate works, which can grow to be massive in scale, are both luminous and weighty, meticulously fabricated yet malleable. He leaves the installations open and encourages the works to take different forms every time they are installed.
In 2015, Anatsui was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, the Venice Biennale’s highest honour. Anatsui’s solo exhibition _Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works_ by El Anatsui, was organized by the Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio (2012), and travelled to the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (2013); then to the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, Florida (2014); and concluded at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California (2015). In 2019, El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, a major career survey curated by Okwui Enwezor, opened at Haus der Kunst and travelled to Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Kunstmuseum Bern and Guggenheim Bilbao in 2020.
Anatsui currently lives and works between Ghana and Nigeria.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024
Hyundai Commission: El Anatsui: Behind the Red Moon,Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London
2022
Freedom, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, SA
El Anatsui: Shard Song, Efie Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2021
El Anatsui: En quête de libertê, La Conciegerie, Paris, FR
The Ancestors Are Converging Again, Everard Read Gallery, Franschhoek, SA
2020
Focus on El Anatsui, Ocotber Gallery, London UK
Triumphant Scale, Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
Triumphant Scale, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Germany
2019
Triumphant Scale, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Doha, Qatar
Triumphant Scale, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
2018
Meyina, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2017
Meyina, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
Proximately, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Wijnegem - Antwerp
Benchmarks: Topology of Generosity, Barakat Gallery, Seoul
Benchmarks: New Prints by El Anatsui, October Gallery, London, UK
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Rewilding,Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland
Soft Power, Das Minsk Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany
Variations: Selections from the Benefit Print Project, Lehman College Art Gallery, New York
2023
Harmonizing with Nature: A Journey of Lifelong Practice, BEEAH Headquarters, Sharjah
Reversed Safari, The Manege Central Exhibition Hall and Triumf Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Ever-Present, Efie Gallery, Dubai
One That Includes Myth, Goodman Gallery, London
Goodman Gallery Seasonal Pop Up, Miami Design District, Florida
2022
A Place With No Name: Works from the Sina Jina Collection, Christie's London
Threading the Needle, The Church, Sag Harbor, New York
2021
Debut Exhibition (Efie Gallery), Burj Plaza by EMAAR, Dubai, UAE
Diaspora at Home, KADIST, Paris, FR
Duende Art projects: THREADS, Zwartzusters Monastery, Antwerp, BEL
Summer Exhibition 2021, Royal Academy of ARts, London, UK
Seeing the Invisible, Jerusalem Botanical GArdens, Jerusalem, ISR
SITE: Art and ARchitecture in the Digital Space, Michigan Central Station, US
Tomorrow is a Different Day, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL
Textures: A Print and Fiber Showcase, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, New Mexico, US
Socle du Monde Biennale 2021: Welcome Back My Friends to the Show that Never Ends, Saint John's Church, Copenhagen
Portals, City Library (former Public Tobacco Factory), Athens
Invisible Sun, The Broad, LA, US
The Slipstream: Reflection, Resilience, and Resistance in the Art of Our Time, Brooklyn Museum, New York, US
Gold and Magic, ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst, Denmark
First Look: Recent Acquisitions & Rarely Seen Gems, MW Gallery, Flint, Michigan
A National Treasure: Fred Meijer, His Collection and Legacy, Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan, US
The Met Unframed, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US
Selected Exhibitions
Rewilding
Group Exhibitions at Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland
13 April 2024 - 18 August 2024
Kunsthaus Baselland is a former champagne warehouse that has been transformed into a new home for Kunstverein Baselland, a center for contemporary art. The inaugural exhibition for the venue, curated by Ines Goldbach, features a stellar list of works by Alexandra Navratil, Andrea Bowers, Anna Maria Maiolino, Anna Winteler, Anne-Lise Coste, Daniela Keiser, El Anatsui, Gabrielle Goliath, Gerda Steiner, Jacob Ott, Joan Jonas, Jörg Lenzlinger, Laura Mietrup, Leonor Serrano Rivas, Marine Pages, Monira Al Qadiri, Naama Tsabar, Pipilotti Rist, Renate Buser, Rochelle Feinstein, Simone Forti, Tatiana Trouvé, Therese Bolliger and Tony Cokes.
Hyundai Commission: El Anatsui: Behind the Red Moon
Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London
10 October 2023 - 14 April 2024
2023’s edition of the Hyundai Commission at the acclaimed Turbine Hall of Tate Modern is populated by the unique and dazzling metal hanging sculptures of El Anatsui. Dubbed ‘Behind the Red Moon’, the exhibition leads you on a journey through thousands of repurposed liquor bottle caps reshaped into the floating and cascading forms of an artwork that is staged in three acts that each reflect an aspect of the vast expanse of human history and the elemental power of nature. Anatsui’s site-specific structures tell wonders of his interest in the movement and migration of goods and people during the transatlantic slave trade.
Also available as part of the experience is a soundscape created by sound artist, Peter Adjaye, as a response to ‘Behind the Red Moon’.
Art Basel 2023
Art Fair at Basel, Switzerland
15 June 2023 - 15 June 2023
Goodman Gallery tells a story of social justice at Art Basel 2023
At this year’s art fair in Switzerland, Goodman Gallery’s Stand P18 features Ghada Amer, El Anatsui, Yto Barrada, Candice Breitz, Kudzanai Chiurai, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Leonardo Drew and many others.
“With a career spanning five decades, El Anatsui is one of the most important contemporary artists — awarded the prestigious Praemium Imperiale alongside Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat in 2017, as well as the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, the Venice Biennale’s highest honour, in 2015. He was also included in TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2023. Anatsui is best known for his ability to meticulously transform simple materials into complex assemblages that create distinctive visual impact.” – Goodman Gallery
One That Includes Myth
Group Exhibitions at Goodman Gallery, London
02 June 2023 - 28 June 2023
“A crazy quilt story is one that can jump back and forth in time and work on many different levels, and one that can include myth.” - Alice Walker, 1983
One That Includes Myth is a group exhibition about the meditative practices expressed through materiality. It feature the works of the following 12 contemporary artists; Ghada Amer, El Anatsui, Elizabet Cerviño, Leonardo Drew, Vibha Galhotra, Nicholas Hlobo, Yee I-Lann, Remy Jungerman, Kapwani Kiwanga, Laura Lima, Tabita Rezaire, Naama Tsabar, and Osman Yousefzada.
Goodman Gallery Seasonal Pop Up
Group Exhibitions at Miami Design District, Florida
01 March 2023 - 23 April 2023
Goodman Gallery presents El Anatsui and others in Miami again
This exhibition at Goodman Gallery’s seasonal Miami Design District Gallery features Amer, El Anatsui, Leonardo Drew, Carlos Garaicoa, David Goldblatt, Nicholas Hlobo, Alfredo Jaar, Remy Jungerman, William Kentridge, Kapwani Kiwanga and Naama Tsabar, all stalwart artists hailing from or with a connection to the global south. El’s recent metal tapestry, Drying Line, 2021 is a prominent feature in the showcase.
Works from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection
Group Exhibitions at Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
24 January 2023 - 31 December 2024
A presentation of the Guggenheim's collection marking moments in history after World War II
This presentation of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection features some of the its most exceptional pieces and also showcases the original architecture of the iconic building. With singular works by artists and works that represent broader art movements, Guggenheim Bilbao seeks to highlight artists whose contributions have blazed new trails in post-World War II art history. The exhibition features El Anatsui’s Rising Sea, 2019.
El Anatsui: Day After Night
Solo Exhibitions at Barakat Contemporary, Seoul
29 November 2022 - 29 January 2023
El Anatsui's second solo exhibition in Korea
El Anatsui: Day After Night is a compelling story on the materiality of light. The exhibition reveals, for the first time, new metal tapestries of shimmering golds, vivid reds, and dark browns, a colourful wood panel work, and a set of monoprints. These works embrace the walls and space of Barakat Contemporary encouraging light to float and play about and emphasizing the stunning presence and inner aspects of the gallery and the works therein.
Freedom
Goodman Gallery Cape Town
24 March 2022 - 14 May 2022
A major solo exhibition by El Anatsui at Goodman Gallery Cape Town
Titled after one of his most recent large wall tapestries of the same name, Freedom at Goodman Gallery, Capetown showcases a new body of work from El Anatsui which includes his category defying aluminium bottle-cap fabrics as well as a few new wood panel works that are reminiscent of an earlier phase in his achievement packed career. With these new works, El tells us intricate tales of identities and the movements of a people across paths towards freedom.
Selected Artworks
El Anatsui
Untitled II, 2023
Aluminum, copper wire and nylon string
Work: 363 x 360 cm (142.9 x 141.7 in.)
Work - as per lnd hang: 270 x 340 cm (106.3 x 133.9 in.)
Unique
El Anatsui
National Identity Card, 2021
Painted wood
Work: 177 x 225 cm (69.7 x 88.6 in.)
Unique
El Anatsui
Sovereignty, 2021
Aluminum, copper wire, and nylon string
Work: 360 x 315 cm (141.7 x 124 in.)
Unique
El Anatsui
Freedom, 2021
Aluminium, copper wire and nylon string
Work: 310 x 893 cm (122 x 351.6 in.)
Unique
El Anatsui
Drying Line, 2021
Aluminum, copper wire, and nylon string
Work: 415 x 657 cm (163.4 x 258.7 in.)
Unique
El Anatsui
Untitled III, 2023
Painted Wood
Work: 193 x 420 x 10 cm (76 x 165.4 x 3.9 in.)
Unique
El Anatsui
Horizon, 2016
Bottle caps
Work: 260 x 460 cm (102.4 x 181.1 in.)
Unique
El Anatsui
Resolution, 2016
Bottle Caps
Work: 320 x 336 cm (126 x 132.3 in.)
Unique
El Anatsui
Untitled (red), 2023
Aluminum, copper wire, and nylon string
Work: 265 x 448 cm (104.3 x 176.4 in.)
Unique
Selected Press
The New York Times – El Anatsui Builds Monumental Art From Daily Life
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ArtNews – When El Anatsui Isn’t Busy Being One of Africa’s Biggest Artists, He’s Collecting Vinyl
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ArtNet – See How Nigerian Artist El Anatsui Weaves Mesmerizing Tapestries Out of Cast-Off Materials
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Frieze – El Anatsui Takes on the Turbine Hall
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Financial Times – El Anatsui — from eating Tate & Lyle sugar in Ghana to filling Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall
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The Art Newspaper – El Anatsui: the sculptor on making art from waste, and waking up the artist in all of us
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