“El Anatsui: Prints and Play” will present the first comprehensive museum survey of prints by Ghanaian artist El Anatsui. Largely known for constructing large-scale sculptures and site-specific installations by repurposing everyday objects and discarded materials such as aluminum bottle caps, wooden market trays and metal cassava graters, this presentation will illuminate Anatsui’s pioneering use of nontraditional materials and techniques to push the boundaries of printmaking. The exhibition 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. These projects have built upon Anatsui’s ties to Philadelphia institutions, particularly the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, where a related exhibition will run concurrently.

El Anatsui is an internationally acclaimed artist who transforms simple materials into complex assemblages that reflect his interest in reuse, transformation and an intrinsic desire to connect to his continent. His works can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution; the British Museum; the Tate Modern; the Vatican Museum and many more.

An artist, critic and art historian, curator Chika Okeke-Agulu specializes in indigenous, modern, and contemporary African and African Diaspora art history and theory. He is director of African World Initiative and the Robert Schirmer Professor of Art & Archaeology and African American Studies at Princeton University. 

The exhibition opens Dec. 19. The museum is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.