October Gallery and Goodman Gallery London are proud to present ‘Go Back and Pick’, an exhibition in two parts 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. These twin exhibitions of Anatsui’s most recent work underscore his major presence in the much-anticipated Nigerian Modernism exhibition at Tate Modern, opening 8th October, 2025.

El anatsui’s internationally renowned sculptural practice continues to challenge the way we look at sculpture today. In the London exhibitions, his focus is on wood, his original and primary material. ‘Go Back and Pick’ presents a new series of wall-mounted sculptures, which evolve from the planar wooden reliefs that characterised his art in the 1980s and 1990s.

From the outset, Anatsui has always insisted on what he calls “the unfixed form”, the broad range of freedoms to be discovered in his sculpture. The modular nature and flexibility of the panel pieces allow for a range of spatially adaptive reconfigurations to the hanging sequence. Rather than having a fixed and final form, each panel piece can be rearranged at will to offer alternative combinations. As renowned scholars Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu note, “the form-shape and surface-colour compositions are potentially free to be manipulated […] uninhibited by whatever might have been the artist’s original composition.”

October Gallery will be showing metal works and a selection of seldom-seen prints by El anatsui created in collaboration with Factum Arte, Madrid.

El anatsui is undoubtedly one of the most influential artists of the present time. Throughout his long career, Anatsui has explored a wide range of subjects. He has also utilised an extraordinary range of media, from clay, cement and tropical hardwoods in his early years, to corrugated iron, cassava graters, milk-tin lids and aluminium bottle-tops in his later installations. Today, he is best known for his mesmerising works composed of many thousands of aluminium bottle-tops stitched together with copper wire.

Triumphant Scale, a major survey exhibition of the artist's work, curated by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, is currently being shown at Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland, until 1st November 2020.

October Gallery, London, is excited to announce the preview of a new body of print works by El anatsui, Benchmarks, created in collaboration with Factum Arte, an extraordinary studio based in Madrid renowned for its synergy of past, present and future techniques. This will be the first presentation of this remarkable series.

El anatsui, recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 56th Venice Biennale, is one of the most exciting artists of our time. This exhibition will present a new body of work by the artist that further explores the possibilities of the artist’s iconic bottle-top sculptures.

Throughout a distinguished forty-year career as both sculptor and teacher – he was Professor of Sculpture and Departmental Head at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka – El anatsui has addressed a vast range of social, political and historical concerns, and embraced an equally diverse range of media and processes. His installations have provoked wide international attention, with institutions and audiences fascinated by these sumptuous, mesmerising works made from thousands of aluminium bottle tops. During the Venice Biennale in 2007, he transformed the facade of the Palazzo Fortuny by draping it in a shimmering wall sculpture. In 2010, two major touring shows of his work opened on opposite sides of the world: El anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada (organised by the Museum for African Art, New York) and A Fateful Journey: Africa in the Works of El anatsui at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan. As part of the 2012 Paris Triennale, he transformed the entire facade of Le Palais Galleria, Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris with his striking work, Broken Bridge. In 2013, the Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA, exhibited the touring solo exhibition, Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El anatsui and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, presented the artist with the prestigious Charles Wollaston Award for his work, TSIATSIA – searching for connection, 2013, which covered the entire facade of the RA building. In 2014, he was made an Honorary Royal Academician as well as elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

El anatsui’s sculptural experiments with media and form have challenged the definition of sculpture itself. In particular, his metal wall-hangings have received international acclaim. Throughout a distinguished forty-year career as both an artist and teacher, El anatsui has addressed a wide range of social, political and historical concerns and embraced an equally diverse range of media and processes. In 2013, one of his largest metal wall-hangings to utilize his bottle-top technique, TSIATSIA – searching for connection, adorned the façade of Burlington House. Created to coincide with the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2013, this remarkable work won the prestigious Charles Wollaston Award.

The exhibition will focus on a range of intricate metal sculptures.  October Gallery has worked with El anatsui since 1993, during which time, his work has received worldwide recognition. These magnificent sculptures have been collected by major international museums, including the British Museum, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, amongst others. Over the last two decades, the works have increased in size, enhancing the external walls of museums and galleries around the world.

These larger external installations include: Ozone Layer and Yam Mound on the Old National Gallery of Berlin (2010); Broken Bridge I, on the Musée Galliera, Paris (2012) and Broken Bridge II on the High Line, New York. In 2013, the Brooklyn Museum, New York, exhibited a major solo exhibition, Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El anatsui.

Emerging, young artist Nnenna Okore will be exhibiting new works in her debut London solo show.

A former student of El anatsui, whose magnificent bottle-top cloths were the highlight of the 52nd Venice Biennale, Nnenna Okore also transforms discarded materials into cultural objects, forms, and spaces.

Her work often employs ordinary media like magazines and newspaper, which are disposed of in her current home the United States, but are considered usable commodities in her native Nigeria. By re-imagining everyday waste, as well as natural materials, Nnenna’s works consistently challenges environmental neglect, consumerism and globalisation.

October Gallery celebrates the anniversary of 40 years of energetic activity in London with an exhibition of works by some of the Gallery’s major artists, including newly commissioned works. A special programme of events will run alongside the exhibition to mark the Gallery’s rich history.

Located in a 3-storey Victorian school building the Gallery opened, in 1979, with an exhibition of Gerald Wilde. From the beginning the Gallery’s aim was to discover a new visual sensibility: the Transvangarde, the cross-cultural avant-garde, exhibiting artists from around the planet.

The exhibition will include works by El anatsui, William S. Burroughs, Paul Friedlander, Brion Gysin, Jukhee Kwon, Romuald Hazoumè, Eddy Kamuanga , LR Vandy, Gerald Wilde, Aubrey Williams and Kenji Yoshida.

October Gallery presents Transvangarde, an exhibition of contemporary art by outstanding artists including: Tian Wei, Golnaz Fathi, Laila Shawa, Alexis Peskine, Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, El anatsui, Romuald Hazoumè, Govinda Sah ‘Azad’, Genesis P-Orridge, Sylvie Franquet, Sokari Douglas Camp CBE, James Barnor, Daniele Tamagni, Brion Gysin and Kenji Yoshida.

October Gallery, London, will celebrate its 35th anniversary this April, with an exhibition of work from some of the most outstanding artists from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania, Europe and the Americas.

The first gallery in the United Kingdom to exhibit contemporary art from all around the world, October Gallery opened its doors thirty-five years ago declaring, 'Artists from Around the Planet: Intelligence, Intuition and Action'. Led by Director, Chili Hawes and Artistic Director, Elisabeth Lalouschek, the gallery has since played a pioneering role in the promotion and exhibition of some of the most innovative and exciting artists of our time, including;
Aubrey Williams, Gerald Wilde, Kenji Yoshida, Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs, El anatsui, Rachid Koraïchi, Romuald Hazoumè, Laila Shawa and Govinda Sah.

To coincide with El Anatsui’s monumental installation covering the façade of the Royal Academy of Arts during their Summer Exhibition, October Gallery, London, will display two of the artist’s recent works, I intricate and sumptuous pieces, created by wiring together aluminium liquor bottle-tops, a material process that has become synonymous with the artist’s name. Since October Gallery began to exhibit these works in 2002, these shimmering, ”wall hangings” have become recognized as representing a high-water mark in contemporary art. The gallery has worked with El anatsui since 1993, during which time his work has received worldwide recognition. These magnificent sculptures have been collected by major international museums.

Also on display will be work by the English artist,
Gerald Wilde who was considered by many artists and intellectuals of his time as “the outstanding painter of his generation.” October Gallery opened with an exhibition of Wilde’s visionary work in 1979. Another early gallery artist was Brion Gysin whose fascination with the complex interface between words and images helped him evolve a unique style of word/image glyphs. Gysin introduced his lifelong friend, the avant-garde novelist William S. Burroughs to his “cut-up” and “permutation” techniques. October Gallery held William S. Burroughs' first solo show in the UK in 1988, and continues to represent Burroughs’ pioneering experimentation in cross-media artistic processes today.

There will be a work by Rachid Koraïchi, winner of the prestigious Jameel Prize 2011. Koraïchi’s work draws upon the concept of safar, the spiritual journey of transcendence. His work is rooted in the beauty of Arabic calligraphic scripts but also incorporates symbols, glyphs and ciphers of his own plus others drawn from a variety of languages, traditions and cultures. The Japanese artist
Kenji Yoshida, combines gold, silver, precious metals and oils on canvas to create powerful visions of the cosmos. Complementary work by other artists will also be included in this show.

October Gallery continues to promote the trans-cultural avant-garde by representing acclaimed artists from around the world. This summer exhibition is no exception.The exhibition focuses upon master-works of global contemporary art which engage in powerfully interactive dialogues indicative of today’s rapidly globalising art world.

This exhibition will feature a major work, by El anatsui, Skylines? (2008), for the first time ever in London. October Gallery, in 2002, exhibited the first two “cloths” by El anatsui, made of hand-sewn recycled liquor bottle-tops translated into sumptuous works of art. Ten years later, El anatsui represents the epitome of the contemporary global artist whose name and works are recognised around the world.

Nnenna Okore uses discarded materials of clay, newspaper, wax and rope to create her otherworldly sculptures of dramatic form. Now working from the US, Okore’s work stands confidently alongside that of her erstwhile mentor whilst engaging it in intimate and playful conversations. Another global contemporary artist is Owusu-Ankomah, who today lives and works in Germany. His canvases employ historically and geographically diverse visual references: from Saharan rock painting and Renaissance sculpture, to Ghanaian textile designs, Chinese calligraphy, New York graffiti and capoeira martial arts from Brazil. He blends this medley of heterogeneous symbols into a cogent plea for a re-imagined world of infinite possibilities, which he terms the Microcron.

October Gallery continues to promote the trans-cultural avant-garde by representing acclaimed artists from around the world. This summer exhibition is no exception.The exhibition focuses upon master-works of global contemporary art which engage in powerfully interactive dialogues indicative of today’s rapidly globalising art world.

This exhibition will feature a major work, by El Anatsui, Skylines? (2008), for the first time ever in London. October Gallery, in 2002, exhibited the first two “cloths” by El Anatsui, made of hand-sewn recycled liquor bottle-tops translated into sumptuous works of art. Ten years later, El anatsui represents the epitome of the contemporary global artist whose name and works are recognised around the world.

Nnenna Okore uses discarded materials of clay, newspaper, wax and rope to create her otherworldly sculptures of dramatic form. Now working from the US, Okore’s work stands confidently alongside that of her erstwhile mentor whilst engaging it in intimate and playful conversations. Another global contemporary artist is Owusu-Ankomah, who today lives and works in Germany. His canvases employ historically and geographically diverse visual references: from Saharan rock painting and Renaissance sculpture, to Ghanaian textile designs, Chinese calligraphy, New York graffiti and capoeira martial arts from Brazil. He blends this medley of heterogeneous symbols into a cogent plea for a re-imagined world of infinite possibilities, which he terms the Microcron.

All the artists exhibited have been close frie

October Gallery continues to promote the trans-cultural avant-garde (Transvangarde), by representing artists from around the planet . This winter’s exhibition is no exception, featuring alone in the Front Gallery: “In the World But Don’t Know the World?”, a major new metal sculpture by El anatsui, straight from its recent premiere at the 3rd Moscow Biennale, (2009).

El anatsui has to date explored a wide range of different media and materials to create a wealth of different sculptural pieces over a long and distinguished career. Of late, he has drawn much attention worldwide with his highly ingenious metal sculptures made from tens of thousands of liquor bott le-tops forming magnificent wall sculptures. The title “In The World But Don’t Know the World?” references the new developments in understanding by which humanity strives to progress. The work consists of a series of independent and interchangeable units and with its free-flowing possibilities of form becomes a metaphor of the mind’s creation of meaning – as much an epistemological tool as it is an object of beauty. This is the first time this metal sculpture will be exhibited in the UK.

‘Transvangarde’ will also include selected works from other prominent artists; an ethereal photograph by Chinese artist Huang Xu, poetic calligraphy from Sufi artist , Rachid Koraïchi, canvases of serene beauty from Kenji Yoshida, an explosive, vibrant painting by Aubrey Williams, and influential work by radical cultural visionaries, William .S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Gerald Wilde. With works from Algeria, Japan, China, North America and Africa, this winter’s Transvangarde exhibition is a truly international look at art .

The exhibition brings together major works by 12 artists who best represent the innovative and dynamic artistic practices across the African continent and the African diasporas and launches the book, Angaza Afrika – African Art Now -  a highly visual survey of contemporary African art compiled by Christopher Spring, curator of the African Galleries at The British Museum, and published by Laurence King.

Angaza Afrika, translated from the Swahili to mean ‘Shed light on Africa’ or ‘Look around Africa’, is comprehensive in its range. Each work will be a stunning visual and physical manifestation of the artists’ energy and spirit, such as Rachid Koraïchi’s Sufi- inspired  black and white appliqué work and the beautiful work of South African artist Karel Nel, who sets vast leaves from the Coco de Mer palms in atmospheric, elemental architectural spaces.

Other featured artists include Romuald Hazoumè, whose immense installation Dream (2007), consisting of a boat made from petrol canisters, placed in front of a panoramic photograph won the documenta 12 prize; El anatsui, who with his magnificent cloths made from thousands of glimmering bottle tops was one of the highlights of the 52nd Venice Biennale and who will transform Channel 4’s 50ft logo, situated in front of their London Headquarters, with an installation in June 2008; Owusu-Ankomah, whose drawings were chosen by Giorgio Armani for his Emporio Armani (PRODUCT) RED capsule collection and Abdoulaye Konaté who has been shortlisted for the Artes Mundi 2008 Prize.

To mark the beginning of a new year, October Gallery will show a collection of their most prominent artists from February 7th – March 31st 2008.

This show represents the culmination of 29 years of work by the October Gallery in seeking out and promoting artists from around the world, who, as well as representing the forefront of their own particular cultures, are at the same time, alive to the shifting currents of other cultures.

London audiences will see the stunning work of El anatsui, whose magnificent metal bottle top cloths wowed the public at Venice Biennale 2007, as well as the vibrant canvases by Austrian artist Elisabeth Lalouschek, the legend who is William S. Burroughs and the British artist Gerald Wilde, whose show of paintings opened the October Gallery in 1979. Further pieces will include works from the Mylar Chamber of Ira Cohen – surreal photographs of the late 60’s and the beautiful works of the late Guyan artist Aubrey Williams.

Winter Show 2008 will provide a truly international insight into art from across the globe.