Metal Cloth, 2023, El Anatsui. Inkjet print on aluminum with copper wire, Approx. 64 × 64 × 4 inches, Printed by Ribuoli Digital, New York, Published by Benefit Print Project, New York. Photo by Christopher Burke Studios. © El Anatsui.
Metal Cloth, 2023, El Anatsui. Inkjet print on aluminum with copper wire, Approx. 64 × 64 × 4 inches, Printed by Ribuoli Digital, New York, Published by Benefit Print Project, New York. Photo by Christopher Burke Studios. © El Anatsui.
Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
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16
September
2026
|
13:58 PM
America/New_York

El Anatsui: Prints and Play

December 19, 2026 – May 2, 2027
Korman, Field, Morgan Galleries (150-155)

  • Untitled (Black on Gold), 2019, El Anatsui. Black ink rubbing on goldleaf Gasenshi paper, 53 1/8 × 53 1/8 inches. Printed by Factum Arte, Madrid, Published by October Gallery, London, and Factum Arte, Madrid, Philadelphia Museum of Art: Purchased with the Henry P. McIlhenny Fund, the James D. Crawford and Judith N. Dean Fund, the Lola Downin Peck Fund, and the Alice Newton Osborn Fund, 2025 90 2, Photo by Jonathan Greet © El Anatsui.
    Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
  • Sage and Charcoal Eclipse, 2016, El Anatsui. Collage of relief and intaglio prints (machine cut), 41 7/16 × 41 7/16 inches. Printed by Factum Arte, Madrid, Published by October Gallery, London, and Factum Arte, Madrid, Photo by Oak Taylor-Smith © El Anatsui.
    Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
  • Untitled (with Red), 2014–15, El Anatsui. Stenciling and hand painted enamel on aluminum, Approx. 40 × 36 inches. Printed by Brand X Editions, New York, Published by Benefit Print Project, New York, Middlebury College Museum of Art, Gift of the Benefit Print Project, New York, 2020.017, Photo by Benefit Print Project © El Anatsui.
    Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
  • Untitled (Cassava Graters Imprints and Collage), 2016, El Anatsui. Relief print with copper wire, mounted to cut aluminum sheet, 7 ft. 10 1/2 in. × 6 ft. 6 3/4 inches. Printed by Factum Arte, Madrid, Published by October Gallery, London, and Factum Arte, Madrid, Philadelphia Museum of Art: Purchased with the Henry P. McIlhenny Fund, the James D. Crawford and Judith N. Dean Fund, the Lola Downin Peck Fund, and the Alice Newton Osborn Fund, 2025 90 1 , Photo by Oak Taylor-Smith © El Anatsui.
    Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
  • Untitled, 2025, El Anatsui. Color woodcut (laser cut), 46 × 62 in. (116.8 × 157.5 cm). Printer: Alexis Nutini. Printed and published by Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Philadelphia.
    Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
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Philadelphia, September 16, 2026–The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is pleased to announce the first comprehensive museum survey of print-related work by El Anatsui (b. 1944, Ghana). Running from December 19, 2026 – May 2, 2027, El Anatsui: Prints and Play will feature more than 90 works, exploring the artist’s enduring fascination with printmaking over the last five decades—a vital but lesser-known area of experimentation throughout his career as a world-renowned sculptor.

Widely recognized as one of the most significant artistic innovators of our time, Anatsui has gained recognition through his development of new artistic forms and through experiments with materials sourced from his surrounding environment. While known for his monumental assemblages composed of liquor-bottle tops, this exhibition will foreground the role that printmaking has played in the evolution of his sculptural practice. It will also show how, working in collaboration with several master printers, Anatsui has engaged in intensive, and at times playful, experimentation with traditional and cutting-edge print techniques and technologies to develop highly inventive and editioned artworks.

Arranged in thematic groupings, El Anatsui: Prints and Play will feature works made from the 1980s to the present, exploring the artist’s distinct methods of making that are characterized by technical complexity and the unique use of found objects such as cassava graters, newspaper printing plates, and lacerated wooden planks from the artist’s studio. The exhibition will also spotlight Anatsui’s longstanding collaborations with master printers at workshops including Philadelphia’s Brandywine Workshop and Archives (BWA), Factum Arte in Madrid, and Ribuoli Digital in New York.

“It is an honor to continue our collaboration with El Anatsui in this second of two projects with the artist,” said Daniel Weiss, the George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “Besides their evident visual power and appeal, these works illustrate how printmaking became a major platform for Anatsui’s artistic expression.”

Highlights from the exhibition will include When I Last Wrote to You…II (1986)— one of the earliest works on view. Created while Anatsui was working at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, it is filled with a grid containing Adinkra systems alluding to West African histories and cultures that have been obscured or destroyed by colonial oppression. The collage print Sage and Charcoal Eclipse (2016), produced at Factum Arte, comprises colored and textured circles printed from weathered, wooden market trays from Ghana. For Untitled (Cassava Graters Imprints and Collage) (2016) (also Factum Arte), Anatsui utilized cassava graters, sheets of galvanized metal punctured with nails used to grind the West African staple cassava into flour. The artist printed directly from the graters onto twenty-four sheets of paper measuring almost ten feet in assembled height, capturing the same imposing scale of his found-object sculptures. This extraordinary print was recently acquired by the PMA. Such works demonstrate Anatsui’s enduring curiosity and the importance of play and incident as conditions for productive modes of making.

Examples of Anatsui’s more recent works such as the woodcut In the Water (2022), created in collaboration with the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, capture the intricate color and surface patterns of his metal sculptures. Terrain (2025), a digital print on formed aluminum sheets, shows how Anatsui and his collaborators at Ribuoli Digital used innovative print techniques to create editioned sculptures that emulate the striking visual effects of his bottle-cap sculptures.

“Charting his evolution as an artist, this exhibition will be a testament to Anatsui’s processes of experimentation and the international studios with which he collaborates,” said guest curator Chika Okeke-Agulu. “For decades, Anatsui has opened his practice to others, resulting in a body of work that is informed by diverse printing technologies and methods of making.”

El Anatsui: Prints and Play will mark the second collaboration between the artist and the PMA. In October 2024, Anatsui unveiled a major sculptural commission in the Museum’s Williams Forum, which will remain on display until April 2027. These projects have built upon Anatsui’s ties to Philadelphia institutions, particularly the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, with which the artist has collaborated since 2017. A related exhibition, which will run concurrently at Brandywine Workshop and Archives, will move deeper into the studio processes, materials, and techniques that led to the important body of print works on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, the first publication to explore this lesser-known aspect of El Anatsui’s work, authored by Chika Okeke-Agulu of Princeton University and including an interview with the artist and an essay by PMA curator Heather A. Hughes. The book is designed by the award-winning Content Object studio.

Media Contact
Carolynn McCormack, Philadelphia Museum of Art | pressroom@philamuseum.org | 215-684-7859

Exhibition Support
This exhibition and catalogue are made possible through major support from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.

Generous support for the exhibition is provided by The Annenberg Endowment for Special Exhibitions, the Lois G. and Julian A. Brodsky Installation and Exhibition Fund, and the Robert Montgomery Scott Endowment for Exhibitions.

Pew Center

Primary funding for the catalogue is generously provided by the Wyncote Foundation.

Exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art are underwritten by the Annual Exhibition Fund supported by Andrea Baldeck, M.D., Julia and David Fleischner, Robert Hayes, and Mark W. Strong and Dana Strong.

Curators
This exhibition is curated by Chika Okeke-Agulu, the Robert Schirmer Professor of Art & Archaeology and African American Studies, Princeton University, and Heather Hughes, the Kathy and Ted Fernberger Associate Curator of Prints, Philadelphia Museum of Art, with Alexandra Schoolman, Exhibition Assistant, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Luiza Repsold França, Daniel W. Dietrich II Fellow, Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Iheanyi Onwuegbucha, Assistant Professor, Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge.

About El Anatsui
El Anatsui (b. 1944, Ghana) is an internationally acclaimed artist who transforms simple materials into complex assemblages that create distinctive visual impact. Anatsui uses resources typically discarded such as liquor bottle caps and cassava graters to create sculptures that defy categorization. Anatsui’s use of these materials reflects his interest in reuse, transformation, and an intrinsic desire to connect to his continent while transcending the limitations of place.

In 2015, Anatsui was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale. Anatsui’s solo exhibition Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, was organized by the Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio (2012) and traveled to the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (2013); then to the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, Florida (2014); and concluded at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California (2015). In 2019, El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, a major career survey curated by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, opened at Haus der Kunst in Munich and traveled to Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Kunstmuseum Bern, and Guggenheim Bilbao in 2020. Anatsui currently lives and works between Ghana and Nigeria.

About the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a national and international destination for art, but first, we are Philadelphia’s art museum—for all of the many diverse communities of the city. Through our collections, exhibitions, events, educational activities, celebrations, and more, the museum is a storyteller, and we welcome everyone to be part of the story—our doors are wide open. To learn more, visit www.philamuseum.org.

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