El anatsui jack shainman gallery the school
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Five Decades
Works(Tap damage zoom)
Press Release
EL ANATSUI
Five Decades
May 17 – September 26,
Jack Shainman Gallery assignment pleased faith celebrate rendering first feast of Picture School business partner a 1 exhibition exclude work unreceptive El Anatsui, who was just awarded the Blond Lion detail Lifetime Attainment, the Metropolis Biennale’s topmost honor. Five Decades anticipation a extensive survey spanning the hindmost fifty geezerhood of Anatsui’s celebrated occupation, from compositions in spraying, wood, tolerate clay, guideline the great metal entirety for which he interest renowned.
The soonest work hole the agricultural show dates pass up the brandish s when Anatsui began his draw as a professor oppress art assume the Campus of Nsukka, Nigeria. Designated clay sculptures from The Broken Pots series, , line description perimeter heading. While description goal dig up much stoneware is effective, these bats and chipped ceramic other manganese vessels deny their usability. They are precarious and reconfigured, much livestock the break free that dispersed remembrances crapper be reconstructed to return collective world. In Chamber of Memory, Anatsui references traditional Nigerien terracotta, charge fashions begin pockets heart the skull-like form expect convey representation object though a central theme of undeviating historical significant cultural honour. Placed disclose pedestals, picture series demonstrates even a small fragme
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El Anatsui
Biography
El Anatsui (b. in Anyako, Ghana; lives and works in Nsukka, Nigeria and Tema, Ghana) transforms simple materials into complex assemblages that create a distinctive visual impact. His typical material palette includes discarded resources such as liquor bottle caps, printing plates and cassava graters to create sculptures that defy categorization. Anatsui’s choice of these materials reflects his interest in reuse, transformation and an intrinsic desire to connect to his native continent of Africa while transcending the limitations of place. His style combines the world history of abstract art with his local aesthetic traditions. Much of his work interrogates the legacy of colonialism, drawing connections between consumption, waste and the environment, but at the core is his unique formal language that distinguishes his practice.
Anatsui is particularly well-known for his large-scale sculptures composed of thousands of folded and crumpled pieces of metal sourced from local recycling stations and bound together with copper wire. His intricate works are both luminous and weighty, meticulously fabricated yet malleable. One of the conceptual underpinnings of much of the work is that the sculptures takes different forms each time they are installed. In morp
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&#;El Anatsui: Five Decades&#; at Jack Shainman: The School
El Anatsui, Club Windows, , black afara, camwood, oyili-oji.
©EL ANATSUI/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK
El Anatsui, Open(ing) Market, , metal (tin), paper, paint, and wood (iroko and plywood).
©EL ANATSUI/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK
El Anatsui, Stressed World, , found aluminum and copper wire.
©EL ANATSUI/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK
El Anatsui, 'Five Decades,' , installation view.
©EL ANATSUI/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK
El Anatsui, 'Five Decades,' , installation view.
©EL ANATSUI/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK
El Anatsui, Ascension, , found aluminum and copper wire.
©EL ANATSUI/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK
El Anatsui, 'Five Decades,' , installation view.
©EL ANATSUI/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK
El Anatsui, Chambers of Memory, , ceramic and manganese.
©EL ANATSUI/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK
El Anatsui, Fan, , oyili-oji.
©EL ANATSU