A major new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art will bring together more than 90 works by El Anatsui, an internationally acclaimed Ghanaian artist known for creating large-scale sculptures from discarded bottle caps and other everyday materials.
Some of the works were created using objects most people wouldn’t associate with printmaking. Anatsui has used cassava graters, weathered wooden market trays, newspaper printing plates and pieces of wood from his studio in the printmaking process.
One of the works, “Untitled (Cassava Graters Imprints and Collage),” was made by printing directly from metal cassava graters onto 24 sheets of paper. Put together, the 2016 piece stands nearly 10 feet tall.
The exhibition will include work from the 1980s through the present, showing how Anatsui has experimented with different materials and techniques throughout his career. That includes “Terrain,” a 2025 digital print on formed aluminum sheets that creates an effect similar to his better-known bottle-cap sculptures.
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There’s also a Philadelphia connection. Anatsui has collaborated with Brandywine Workshop and Archives, including on the 2022 woodcut “In the Water.” Brandywine will present a related exhibition while “El Anatsui: Prints and Play” is on view, taking a closer look at the materials and techniques behind his work.
Anatsui’s work can already be seen elsewhere in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A large-scale sculpture he created for the museum’s Williams Forum was unveiled in 2024 and will remain on display through April 2027.
“El Anatsui: Prints and Play”
Dec. 19, 2026-May 2, 2027
Philadelphia Museum of Art
2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
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