Artists

El Anatsui

Press release

Goodman Gallery London and October Gallery are proud to present two concurrent exhibitions by El Anatsui, widely regarded as one of the most influential contemporary artists working today. Anatsui’s new wooden sculptures mark a significant moment in his artistic trajectory, evolving from his foundational use of the medium during the 1980s and 1990s. The two exhibitions of Anatsui’s most recent work underscore the artist’s presence in the much-anticipated Nigerian Modernism at Tate Modern, opening 8 October 2025. Following the 2023 Hyundai Commission, Behind the Red Moon, a majestic, three-part installation in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, Anatsui stands at a reflective moment in his career. The new wooden sculptures are the focus of the two coinciding exhibitions in London and reflect Anatsui’s continued curiosity with material and form through the medium that defined his early body of work while still studying at KNUST University in Kumasi, Ghana, in 1969. His approach was shaped in part by the Sankofa movement in post-independent Ghana, championed a return to Indigenous African arts and sculptural traditions as sources of inspiration as a conscious response to the post-colonial historical context and the imported British art school curriculum. The term Sankofa exhorts the importance of learning from the past, reclaiming lost knowledge, and integrating these lessons into the present to build a stronger future.