MivEvi: El Anatsui Transforms Bottle Caps into Sculpture

Description

Sculptor El Anatsui’s latest metal works push his bottlecap practice into new territory, presenting fully double-sided forms without a fixed front or back. In MivEvi at White Cube, cut, flattened and wired elements coalesce into shifting fields of muted silver and earthy branded tones, their exposed seams and apertures laying bare the works’ intricate construction.

Across these works such as “MivEvi III,” orientation, gravity and display remain active forces, making each installation provisional rather than fixed. Fragmentation, repetition and open-ended assembly become central, extending Anatsui’s long-standing interest in transformation, material memory and cyclical time.

Born in Ghana in 1944, Anatsui is renowned for transforming discarded materials into monumental, textile-like sculptures. A key figure in post-independence African art and recipient of major international honours, including the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale, he has exhibited at Tate Modern, Haus der Kunst in Munich and leading museums across Europe, Africa and the United States.