El Anatsui

El Anatsui ( born 1944 ) is a Ghanaian sculptor who has spent most of his career in Nigeria.

Life

Anatsui was born in Anyako in the Volta region and studied at the College of Art of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, central Ghana. His teaching career began in 1975 at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, where he joined the Nsukka group of artists.

Anatsui preferred materials are wood and clay, with which he creates objects based on traditional Ghanaian myths and other topics. He has wood with the chain saw and blackened with the Azetylenbrenner. More recently he has turned to installation art. Some of his works are reminiscent of Kente cloths. In addition to Ghanaian motifs Anatsui used Uli and Nsibidi designs.

El Anatsui work is exhibited all over the world, so at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ( 2008-09 ); National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. 2001 and 2008; Biennale di Venezia 1990 and 2007; Hayward Gallery, London ( 2005); Liverpool Biennial (2002); Centre Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (2001); 8 Osaka Triennale (1995).

A retrospective of his work, When I Last Wrote to You About Africa, opened in October 2010 at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. You will travel in the next three years through North America.

Among his awards of the Prince Claus Award is one.