exhibitions
El Anatsui
Artist
- El Anatsui
Special Events
Friday, 11 April 2008
Reception for the Artists
About the Exhibition
EL ANATSUI: EARTH GROWING ROOTS will feature seven new large-scale works completed by the artist in 2007. Using copper wire, El Anatsui joins together foil bottleneck wrappers and metal bottle caps-refuse from empty liquor containers-to create colorful, fabric-like wall sculptures that juxtapose the social, political and cultural history of Africa with the stylistic and conceptual idioms of Western art practice. These shimmering textiles allude to the use of both cloth and liquor as currency by European slave traders on the West African coast. They also refer to the traditional woven kente cloth and stamped adinkra symbols of Ghana, the reductive imagery of geometric abstract painting, the pressing ecological issues of consumerism and waste, and the historical and ongoing impacts of the global marketplace. As the tapestries themselves travel the world for exhibitions and to reside in collections, they respond to the contexts in which they are presented. The works crease, drape, undulate and fold with infinite variety in order to adapt to, and conversely transform, their environments.
El Anatsui was born in 1944 in Anyako, Ghana. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art and a postgraduate diploma in art education from the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Currently, he is Professor of Sculpture at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, where he has taught since 1975. His work has been included in numerous international exhibitions and was featured in a recent solo exhibition that toured Europe and the United States.
EL ANATSUI: EARTH GROWING ROOTS is organized by Tina Yapelli, director of the University Art Gallery at San Diego State University. The exhibition is sponsored by the School of Art, Design and Art History; the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts; and the fund for Instructionally Related Activities. Additional support is provided by the San Diego State University Art Council. El Anatsui is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.