El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa (2010-11) (Press release)

PRESS RELEASE

El Anatsui:
When I Last Wrote to You about Africa
Institute for Contemporary Culture
Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen’s Park
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 2C6

2 October - 2 January 2011

El Anatsui. Sacred moon, (2007). Aluminum and copper wire 103 x 141 in. Photo courtesy: Jack Shainman Gallery.

This fall sees the world premiere of the exhibition El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa, presented by the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). The exhibition is a 40-year career retrospective of Ghanaian visual artist El Anatsui and will be his first solo exhibition in Canada. El Anatsui is the centrepiece of the Museum’s upcoming Season of Africa, an offering of exhibitions, new permanent installations, and a series of public programs and events inspired by African art and culture. El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa will be on display in the Roloff Beny Gallery on Level 4 of the ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal from October 2, 2010 to January 2, 2011.

El Anatsui. Akua’s surviving children, (1996). Wood and metal. Photo courtesy: The October Gallery, London.

“The ICC is thrilled to present the striking work of world-renowned artist El Anatsui and to offer a robust schedule of engaging public events that will enlighten participants about the multi-faceted, cultural gem that is Africa,” said Francisco Alvarez, Managing Director, ICC.

This retrospective has been organized by the Museum for African Art (MfAA), in New York, and will be one of the inaugural exhibitions in the MfAA’s new building, which opens in 2011. Drawing on Ghanaian and Nigerian cultural references as well as global, local and personal histories, El Anatsui’s body of work comprises large shimmering metal wall sculptures, for which he is best known, as well as paintings and sculptures in wood, ceramic and metal. The exhibition features 63 works in various media drawn from public and private collections internationally.

El Anatsui. Assorted seeds II, (1989). Wood, 27 1/8 x 31 x 7/8 in. Photo: Museum for African Art/Kelechi Amadi-Obi.

Exhibition curator Lisa Binder, associate curator at the Museum for African Art, states, “The Museum for African Art is delighted that this exhibition is opening at the ROM, and hopes that it will provide an engaging and enlightening experience for both audiences new to Anatsui’s work and those who are familiar with it. While his superb wall-sculptures are widely known and celebrated, Anatsui’s career includes a range of innovative and resonant work in many mediums. Seen together, these should provide context for the later work, as well as a fuller and therefore more accurate picture of the arc of his career than has yet been exhibited.”

About the exhibition
Constructed from found objects and everyday materials, Anatsui’s stunningly original sculptures evoke memories of Africa’s past and present. When I Last Wrote to You about Africa brings together the full range of the artist’s oeuvre, from early works in ceramic and wood to the internationally celebrated tapestry-like sculptures of recent years. The exhibition illuminates the great diversity of materials in which Anatsui has worked, among them mortars, the lids of evaporated-milk tins, cassava graters, driftwood, and obituary-notice printing plates. The retrospective will thus enable visitors to observe the development of the artist’s ideas over four decades, bringing to light his multilayered narratives, which refer to the complex histories, themes, and social issues that shape personal, cultural, and historical identities.

El Anatsui at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto: 1 | 2 | 3

ads by artdesigncafe