I just – finally – got the press release announcing the world premiere retrospective of El Anatsui, the African artist whose shimmering, decadent textiles made from metal bottlecaps are stunningly beautiful.

The artist El Anatsui. Image: ethicarts.org

This is going to be THE exhibition to see in Toronto, if not Canada, this fall. I’m sure of it.

El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa
October 2, 2010 to January 2, 2011 at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

The show, which was organized by the Museum for African Art (MfAA), in New York, was intended to open there but apparently the building isn’t ready yet. So…the ROM got the world premiere by default, which is wonderful for Toronto audiences. It will feature 63 works in various media drawn from public and private collections internationally.

Anatsui’s work in Venice. Image: murdocklondon.com

At February’s Reel Artists Film Festival (disclaimer: which I promote) I saw an incredible documentary on Anatsui, called Fold, Crumple, Crush: The Art of El Anatsui, by director Susan Vogel. Read that blog post HERE.

Though he is best known in North America and Europe for his shimmering metallic tapestries (made from salvaged liquor-bottle caps that have been flattened, folded and/or twisted, then stitched together with copper wire), which debuted at the Venice Biennale in 2007, where I first saw them, in Africa he has been celebrated for years for his paintings and sculptures in wood, ceramic and metal that draw on global, local and personal histories.

A closeup of the bottle caps. Image: artasauthority.com

El Anatsui, Akua’s Surviving Children, 1996. Image: bbc.co.uk

According to the exhibition’s release, the show will “illuminate the great diversity of materials in which Anatsui has worked, among them mortars, the lids of evaporated-milk tins, cassava graters, driftwood, and obituary-notice printing plates.”

El Anatsui, Crumbling Wall, 2000. This piece is made from steel sheets and is from the collection of Toronto collectors Audrey and David Mirvish.

Read the full release HERE, and more about the artist HERE.