Ghanaian artist and sculptor El Anatsui uses humble found materials — mostly famously, bottle caps — to make monumental artworks. Currently living and working in Nigeria, Anatsui is known for defying categorization, with sculptures that have been described variously as resembling quilts, animal hides, chainmail, lace and mosaics. He also creates smaller-scale abstract prints with a similar look and energy.
Anatsui was born in 1944 and earned his bachelor’s degree from Ghana’s Kumasi College of Arts, Science and Technology in 1968. He followed it up with a postgraduate diploma in art education and took his first teaching post at the University of Education in Ghana in 1969. In the late 1970s, Anatsui began creating his own art, mainly in terra-cotta, inspired by traditional African forms.
In 1982, Anatsui became a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he continued to teach until 2011. Over the 1980s, he branched out and experimented with materials like wood, giving him greater freedom of scale, pattern and color. Over time, he began to use smaller pieces of metal stitched-together copper wire to build grandiose sculptures, which became his signature look and technique. In addition to bottle caps, Anatsui is known for using printing plates, iron nails, railroad ties and tin cans.
Whatever material he chooses for any given piece, Anatsui ensures that it has a connection to Africa, often sourcing from local recycling stations. His work is an exploration of the environment, waste, colonialism, local traditions, consumption and the connections between all of these facets. In the process, he transforms discarded items into beautiful art installations.
In 2008, Anatsui was recognized for his contributions to art with a Lifetime Achievement award at the Venice Biennale. His work has been exhibited all over the world, including at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka and Rice Gallery in Houston. In 2022, Damiani Publishers released a 360-page book titled El Anatsui: The Reinvention of Sculpture, which chronicles his life and work.
On 1stDibs, find El Anatsui prints and other art.
Paper and Silver by El Anatsui hand-sculpted aluminium sculpture African Art
By El Anatsui
Located in Zug, CH
El Anatsui uses typically discarded resources such as liquor bottle caps, cassava graters and newspaper printing plates, to create both floor-based sculptures and shimmering wall pie...
Metal, Copper, Wire
Price Upon Request
Variation I (B)
By El Anatsui
Located in Saint Louis, MO
El Anatsui Variation I (B), 2014 Pigment print with hand collage and copper wire 23 x 30.2 inches (58.4 x 76.8 cm) Edition of 16
Wire
$3,500
H 9.5 in W 12 in
I Could Feel You, Tracey Emin, rare 2015 giclee print plate signed 300 gsm paper
By Tracey Emin
Located in New York, NY
Tracey Emin I Could Feel You, 2015 Archival quality giclée print on Purcell Ultrasmooth Fine Art Paper 300 GSM 9 1/2 × 12 inches Plate signed Unframed Rare archival quality, giclée reproduction of Tracey Emin's original gouache I Could Feel You, which is in the permanent modern art collection of the Tate. This was printed back in 2015 in an undisclosed limited edition, and is now long sold out. More details about the original 2014 work are on the Tate Gallery's website as follows: Emin, whose work is often candidly autobiographical, scrutinises her relationship with her own body, using drawing...
Giclée
$1,559
H 9.06 in W 7.88 in D 0.04 in
Plate VI, from Joan Miro by Jacques Prévert and Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes
By Joan Miró
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Plate VI, from Joan Miro by Jacques Prévert and Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, a book published by Maeght and Printed by Mourlot in 1956. Reference: Mourlot 237 Unknown publication s...
Lithograph
Damien Hirst - Forever - (Small) - Contemporary Art
By Damien Hirst
Located in Asheville, NC
Damien Hirst - Forever - Contemporary Art Artists Hirst, Damien Edition Details Year: 2020 Class: Art Print Status: Official Released: 09/15/20 Run: 2,573 Technique: Giclee Paper: Aluminum Composite Panel Size: 15.35 X 15.35 Markings: Signed & Numbered Artwork is digitally signed & numbered About Artist: Damien Hirst, a poster boy for the Young British Artists who rose to prominence in late 1980s London, is one of the most notorious artists of his generation. He has pushed the limits of fine art and good taste with sculptures that comprise dead animals...
Spray Paint, Acrylic, Giclée
$34,998
H 36.2 in W 49.6 in
Cannizaro H4-4 Damien Hirst Contemporary Art Diasec-mounted Giclée Print Street
By Damien Hirst
Located in Draper, UT
Damien Hirst Cannizaro H4-4 Diasec-mounted Giclée print on aluminium panel 920 x 1260 MM Edition size: 75 + 5 AP signed and numbered from an edition of 75 verso, published by HENI Editions; sheet: 92 x 126cm Damien Hirst first came to public attention in London in 1988 when he conceived and curated "Freeze," an exhibition in a disused warehouse that showed his work and that of his friends and fellow students at Goldsmiths College. In the nearly quarter of a century since that pivotal show (which would come to define the Young British Artists), Hirst has become one of the most influential artists of his generation. His groundbreaking works include The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), a shark in formaldehyde; Mother and Child Divided (1993) a four-part sculpture of a bisected cow and calf; and For the Love of God (2007), a human skull studded with 8,601 diamonds. In addition to his installations and sculptures, Hirst’s Spot paintings...
Metal
$580
H 36 in W 48 in
Sunset Portal, Limited Edition Color Field, Modern Minimalism, Geometric Diptych
By Ryan Rivadeneyra
Located in Barcelona, ES
Sunset Portas it's a limited edition giclée print that presents a luminous progression of color through nested geometric bands that radiate from deep indigo to warm amber and pale li...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Giclée
Damien Hirst "Theodora" Giclee Print, 2022
By Damien Hirst
Located in Astoria, NY
Damien Hirst (English, b. 1965), "Theodora", Laminated Giclee Print on Aluminum Composite Panel Screenprinted with Glitter, 2022, from "The Empresses" series, Heni Editions Catalogue...
Metal
Wu Zetian (H10-1) from The Empresses
By Damien Hirst
Located in Calabasas, CA
Wu Zetian (H10-1) from The Empresses, 2022 From an edition of 2853 (1569 NFTs, 1284 physical prints) Laminated Giclée print on aluminium composite panel, screen printed with glitter ...
Giclée
Sold|$3,443
H 9.06 in Dm 9.06 in
H12-4 Beautiful, Remarkably Amusing, Utterly Fascinating Painting
By Damien Hirst
Located in London, GB
Beautiful, Remarkably Amusing, Utterly Fascinating, Uncluttered, Purely Private and Inimitable Vortex Painting 2023 Giclée print on poly-cotton artist canvas, mounted on birch plywo...
Plywood, Cotton Canvas, Giclée
Tell Him I Was Too Fucking Busy--Or Vice Versa
By The Connor Brothers
Located in New York, NY
A very good impression of this color giclée print with screen-printed varnish on white wove paper. Signed, dated in pencil lower right. Numbered 23/50 in pencil, lower left.
Varnish, Color, Giclée, Screen
$2,800
H 16.5 in W 12.4 in
It's a Crime to Live with the Person You Don't Love with official COA + hologram
By Tracey Emin
Located in New York, NY
Tracey Emin It's A CRIME to Live with The Person You don't LOVE, 2121 Giclée print on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl 285gsm paper, accompanied by official COA with hologram 16 1/2 × 11 2/5...
Foil
Joan Miro - Playing Dog - Lithograph in Colors
By Joan Miró
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Joan Miro - Playing Dog - Lithograph in Colors Artist: Joan Miro Composition 7 for the book “Joan Miro” by Jacques Prevert Editor: Maeght Year: 1956 Dimensions: 23 x 38 cm Reference:...
Lithograph
$307Sale Price|82% Off
H 27.56 in W 19.69 in
Win WIN Photography Print Limited Edition Signed
By Sandra Salamonová
Located in Slovak Republic, SK
Abstract fine art print, limited edition of 15. Signed by the author, inspired during a difficult tennis match (lines and cinder).
Color, Digital, Archival Pigment
Black and Silver
By El Anatsui
Located in Toronto, Ontario
El Anatsui (b. 1944) is an acclaimed Ghanian sculptor working out of Nigeria. Known for his large-scale tapestry-like metallic sculptures created from discarded resources, Anatsui dr...
Copper, Wire
Sold
H 64.18 in W 61.03 in D 1.97 in
Checked Key by El Anatsui, Limited Edition, Wall Sculpture, Metal, Contemporary
By El Anatsui
Located in Zug, CH
El Anatsui Checked Key 2022 Hand sculpted and formed UV cured acrylic resin inkjet on aluminum with irregular hand-cut edges and copper wire 163 × 155 × 5 cm (64.2 × 61 × 2 in) Signe...
Metal, Copper, Wire
Sold
H 64.18 in W 61.03 in D 1.97 in
Checked Key by El Anatsui, Limited Edition, Wall Sculpture, Metal, Contemporary
By El Anatsui
Located in Zug, CH
El Anatsui Checked Key 2022 Hand sculpted and formed UV cured acrylic resin inkjet on aluminum with irregular hand-cut edges and copper wire 163 × 155 × 5 cm (64.2 × 61 × 2 in) Signe...
Metal, Copper, Wire
Striped Flags
By El Anatsui
Located in New York, NY
This work is offered by CLAMP in New York City.
Metal
El Anatsui Zebra Crossing, First Edition
By El Anatsui
Located in valatie, NY
El Anatsui zebra crossing. New York: Jack Shainman Edition, 2009. First Edition foiled hardcover with no dust jacket as issued. 174 pp. Art book on the ...
Paper