“If you touch something, you leave a charge on it,” says El Anatsui. “And anybody else touching it connects with you, in a way.” Woven with recycled aluminum and copper wire, Anatsui's iconic garment-like sculptures subvert the notion that metal is a rigid material by manipulating it into pliable forms that arch and curve throughout their environment.
This motif extends to Anatsui’s printmaking. The stencils and pigment prints featured in EL ANATSUI contour off the page—either physically curling upon themselves or creating trompe l'oeil dimensionality through patterns, shapes and pearlescent sheens. Some are printed on sheets of aluminium, while others feature hand-cut, hand-painted, or hand-woven elements that leave a charge of subversive invention straight from the artist’s hands.
Created in collaboration with the Benefit Print Project, this sophisticated series of prints utilizes new technologies. Co-founded by Thomas Lollar and Paul Limperopulos in 2010, it has published artists such as El Anatsui, Lynda Benglis, Shirin Neshat, and Mickalene Thomas.
