El Anatsui

El Anatsui was born in Anyanko, Ghana in 1944. He is an internationally acclaimed artist who transforms simple materials into complex assemblages that create distinctive visual impact. Many of Anatsui’s sculptures are mutable in form, conceived to be so free and flexible that they can be shaped in any way and altered in appearance for each installation. Working with wood, clay, metal, and—most recently—the discarded metal caps of liquor bottles, Anatsui breaks with sculpture’s traditional adherence to forms of fixed shape while visually referencing the history of abstraction in African and European art.<br />
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The colorful and densely patterned fields of the works assembled from discarded liquor-bottle caps also trace a broader story of colonial and postcolonial economic and cultural exchange in Africa, told in the history of cast-off materials. The sculptures in wood and ceramics introduce ideas about the function of objects (their destruction, transformation, and regeneration) in everyday life, and the role of language in deciphering visual symbols.<br />
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El Anatsui received a BA and Postgraduate Diploma, Art Education, from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana (1969) and since 1975 has taught at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. His works are in the public collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Indianapolis Museum of Art; British Museum, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris, among many others. Major exhibitions of his work have appeared at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown (2011); Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (2010); National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka (2010); Rice University Art Gallery, Houston (2010); Venice Biennale (2007); and the Biennale of African Art, Senegal (2006). El Anatsui lives and works between Ghana and Nigeria.<br />
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SELECTED AWARDS<br />
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2016<br />
Honorary Doctor of Arts, 365th Commencement Ceremony, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA<br />
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Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA), 2016 graduation ceremonies, The University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa<br />
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2015<br />
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy<br />
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2014<br />
Elected Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA, USA<br />
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Elected Honorary Academician, British Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK<br />
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2013<br />
Charles Wollaston Award, 245th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK<br />
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2009<br />
30th Anniversary Award, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., USA<br />
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Prince Claus Award, Lagos, Nigeria<br />
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2008<br />
Visionaries Award, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY, USA<br />
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1999<br />
Public’s Prize, 7th Triennial of small-scale sculpture, Stuttgart, Germany<br />
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1998<br />
Bronze Award, 9th Triennial of Sculpture Osaka, Japan<br />
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1995<br />
Kansai Telecasting Corporation Prize, 3rd Sculpture Triennale, Osaka, Japan<br />
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1990<br />
Honorable Mention, 44th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy<br />
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS<br />
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2016<br />
El Anatsui, Prince Claus Fund Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands<br />
El Anatsui: New Works, October Gallery, London, UK<br />
El Anatsui: Five Decades, Carriageworks, Sydney Festival 2016, Sydney, Australia<br />
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2015<br />
El Anatsui – Selected Works, October Gallery, London, UK<br />
El Anatsui Of Dzi, Kunstbanken Hedmark, Kunstsenter, Hamar, Norway<br />
El Anatsui: Five Decades, The School – Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, NY, USA<br />
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2014<br />
New World, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Mount Holyoke, MA, USA<br />
El Anatsui: Trains Of Thought, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY, USA<br />
El Anatsui: Playing With Chance, Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, Nigeria<br />
El Anatsui-Theory of Se, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Hong Kong, China<br />
El Anatsui, Mnuchin Gallery, New York, NY, USA<br />
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2012 – 2015<br />
Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH, USA<br />
Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, Brooklyn Museum, Brookyln, NY, USA<br />
Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, Des Moines Art Center, IA, USA<br />
Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL, USA<br />
Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA<br />
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2012 – 2013<br />
Broken Bridge II, The High Line, New York, NY, USA<br />
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2012<br />
Pot of Wisdom, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY, USA<br />
Stitch in Time, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium<br />
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2011<br />
El Anatsui, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, USA<br />
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2010 – 2012<br />
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote To You About Africa, organised by the Museum for African Art, New York, NY, USA<br />
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote To You About Africa, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada<br />
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote To You About Africa, Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA <br />
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote To You About Africa, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA<br />
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote To You About Africa, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, USA<br />
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote To You About Africa, Denver Art Museum, CO, USA<br />
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote To You About Africa, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI, USA<br />
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2010 – 2011<br />
A Fateful Journey, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan<br />
A Fateful Journey, The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama<br />
A Fateful Journey, Tsuruoka Art Forum, Yamagata, Japan<br />
A Fateful Journey, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan<br />
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2010<br />
Gli, Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, TX, USA<br />
El Anatsui, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY, USA<br />
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2009<br />
El Anatsui, Belger Arts Center, Kansas City, MO, USA<br />
Process and Project, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA<br />
Chance Encounters: Seven Contemporary Artists from Africa, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India<br />
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2008<br />
Earth Growing Roots, San Diego State University Art Gallery, San Diego, CA, USA<br />
Zebra Crossing, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY, USA<br />
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2006<br />
Asi, David Krut Projects, New York, USA, in collaboration with October Gallery, London, UK<br />
Nyekor, Spazio Rossana Orlandi, Milan, Italy, in collaboration with October Gallery, London, UK<br />
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2005<br />
Danudo: Recent Sculptures of El Anatsui, Skoto Gallery in collaboration with Contemporary African Art Gallery, New York, NY, USA<br />
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2003 – 2008<br />
El Anatsui: Gawu, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno, Wales, UK<br />
El Anatsui: Gawu, Model Arts & Niland Gallery, Sligo, Ireland<br />
El Anatsui: Gawu, Gallery Oldham, Oldham, Greater Manchester, UK<br />
El Anatsui: Gawu, October Gallery, London, UK<br />
El Anatsui: Gawu, Djanogly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham, UK<br />
El Anatsui: Gawu, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL, USA<br />
El Anatsui: Gawu, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA<br />
El Anatsui: Gawu, Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA<br />
El Anatsui: Gawu, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ, USA<br />
El Anatsui: Gawu, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., USA<br />
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2002<br />
New Works, October Gallery, London, UK<br />
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1998<br />
A Sculpted History of Africa, October Gallery, London, UK<br />
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1997<br />
Hakpa, French Cultural Centre, Lagos, Nigeria<br />
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1995<br />
El Anatsui: Sculptures and Reliefs, October Gallery, London, UK<br />
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1991<br />
Old and New: An Exhibition of Sculpture in Assorted Wood, National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria<br />
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1987<br />
Venovize: Ceramic Sculpture by El Anatsui, Faculty of Art and Design Gallery, Cornwall College, Redruth, UK<br />
Pieces of Wood: An Exhibition of Mural Sculpture, The Franco-German Auditorium, Lagos, Nigeria<br />
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1982<br />
Sculptures, Photographs, Drawings, Goethe-Institut, Lagos, Nigeria<br />
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1980<br />
Wood Carvings, Cummington Community of Arts, Cummington, MA, USA<br />
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1979<br />
Broken Pots: Sculpture by El Anatsui, British Council, Enugu, Nigeria<br />
Broken Pots: Sculpture by El Anatsui, Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria<br />
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1976<br />
Wooden Wall Plaques, Asele Art Gallery, Nsukka, Nigeria<br />
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And many group exhibitions.<br />
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Sources: el-anatsui.com, art21.org, jackshainman.com