Born 1944 in Ghana, El Anatsui transforms simple, everyday objects into grand, totemic assemblages in his sculptures and installations. He combines such disparate materials as bottle caps, printing plates, cassava graters, copper wiring and sheet metal into both floor-based sculptures and shimmering wall pieces that sway and flex like cloth, despite their rigid composite materials.
Anatsui has exhibited in New York, London, Lagos, Barcelona and Doha. He has participated in the Venice Biennale twice, once in 1990 and again in 2007 and received a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2009. His work has achieved seven figures at auction and belongs in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of African Art and the British Museum, among others.
El Anatsui has created a monumental new artwork for Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, comissioned by Hyundai. Anatsui's Behind The Red Moon is a monumental sculptural installation made of thousands of metal bottle tops and fragments.