NY To Do: El Anatsui at the Brooklyn Museum
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As the East Coast prepares for a blizzard, many of us here in New York are planning to spend a weekend indoors. However, in anticipation of the cabin fever that invariably sets in after a couple of days in a small NYC apartment, some members of our staff plan on trekking through the snow to check out a new El Anatsui exhibition, which opens today at the Brooklyn Museum. Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui features over 30 of the Ghanaian artist’s works, including twelve large scale wall and floor sculptures created with found objects and metal fragments. Inspired by aesthetic traditions from both his birth country, Ghana, and his hometown of Nsukka, Nigeria, the artist employs discarded materials to create intriguing compositions that utilize colors, textures, and shapes to examine global consumerism and the increasingly complex nature of geographic identity. It’s the first solo exhibition of his work in a New York museum, and each piece is tailored specifically for the space it occupies. Some highlights from the exhibition:
El Anatsui (Ghanaian, born 1944). Earth’s Skin, 2007. Aluminum and copper wire, 177 x 394 in.
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photograph by Joe Levack, courtesy of Akron Art Museum
El Anatsui (Ghanaian, born 1944). Drainpipe, 2010. Tin and copper wire, installation at the Akron Art Museum, dimensions variable.
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photograph by Andrew McAllister,
courtesy of the Akron Art Museum
El Anatsui (Ghanaian, born 1944). Gli (Wall), 2010. Aluminum and copper wire, installation at the Akron Art Museum, dimensions variable.
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photograph by Andrew McAllister, courtesy of the Akron Art Museum
El Anatsui (Ghanaian, born 1944). Gravity and Grace, 2010. Aluminum and copper wire,
145 5/8 x 441 in. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photograph
by Andrew McAllister, courtesy of the Akron Art Museum
El Anatsui (Ghanaian, born 1944). Conspirators, 1997. Wooden relief with paint, 24 x 55 3/4 x 7/8 in.
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photograph by Andrew McAllister, courtesy of the Akron Art Museum
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