Museum of Contemporary Art (MCASD), San Diego, United States
05 Mar 2015 - 28 Jun 2015
El Anatsui, Dusasa I Installation view, 52nd Annual Venice Biennale at the Arsenale curated by Robert Storr, 2007 aluminum liquor bottle caps and copper wire 288 x 360 inches, courtesy: Jack Shainman Gallery
The first solo exhibition in a New York museum by the globally renowned contemporary artist El Anatsui, this show will feature over 30 works in metal and wood that transform appropriated objects into site-specific sculptures.
Anatsui (born 1944) converts found materials into a new type of media that lies between sculpture and painting, combining aesthetic traditions from his birth country, Ghana; his home in Nsukka, Nigeria; and the global history of abstraction.
Included in the exhibition are twelve recent monumental wall and floor sculptures, widely considered to represent the apex of Anatsui’s career. The metal wall works, created with bottle caps from a distillery in Nsukka, are pieced together to form colorful, textured hangings that take on radically new shapes with each installation. Anatsui is captivated by his materials’ history of use, reflecting his own nomadic background. The show Gravity and Grace responds to a long history of innovations in abstract art and performance, building upon cross-cultural exchange among Africa, Europe, and the Americas and presenting works in a wholly new, African medium.
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