Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by El Anatsui. Continuing to employ his primary medium of metal in the form of liquor bottle caps, printing plates and copper wire, Anatsui transforms the material into both draping wall pieces and three-dimensional works that hover between painting and sculpture. The artist’s exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery will coincide in part with a presentation on the Upper East Side at Mnuchin Gallery. An opening reception with the artist will take place Saturday, October 18th from 6 to 8 p.m.

Throughout his oeuvre, Anatsui has focused enormous attention on the language of his materials. Through folds and twists he pushes the metal parts beyond themselves, transforming them from microcosmic elements into sutured surfaces that are at once commanding and delicately intricate. Radical in his approach to abstraction, Anatsui circumvents traditional approaches to the picture plane through shape and dimensionality, borrowed from and imposed upon the material.