#art, Meet the Ghanaian Artist El Anatsui…

El Anatsui is 81 years old. He was born in 1844 in Anyako, Ghana. This contemporary African sculptor has spent most of his career in Nigeria…

He is mostly known for his «bottle-top installations» which he makes out of thousands of pieces of aluminium which he gets from alcohol recycling stations. He sews them together with wires of copper and transforms them, artistically into sculptures seemingly of cloth.

El Anatsui studied art at the University of Kumasi in Ghana. Later he relocated to Nigeria where in 1977 he began teaching Sculpture and Applied Arts at the University of Nigeria. There he joined the group Nsukka, an artists group that created mostly abstract forms, sculpture and contemporary art.

He has exhibited his work throughout the world and as well has received several prizes. He was awarded the Imperial Sculpture Prize from the Japanese Art Association as well as the Lorenzo the Magnificent Prize at the Florence Biennale. He is an honorary academician of the British and American Academies of Art and Sciences.

Definitely an interesting and important artist to get to know.

CHEERS