El Anatsui: Palettes of Ambition

The team at Carnegie Museum of Art unpack Palettes of Ambition, the Ghanaian artist’s monumental artwork conjured from everyday waste

El Anatsui is known for transforming discarded, everyday materials into tapestry-like works that at once challenge the boundaries between art and craft, and weave together cultural and political histories. His work Palettes of Ambition, Carnegie Museum of Art’s most meaningful single art acquisition in the last 50 years, is a monumental wall-hung sculpture. Palettes of Ambition, located at the museum’s Scaife Lobby, welcomes the public into the museum and invites viewers to reflect on questions around materiality, history and the power dynamics that underlie notions of wealth and value.

Credits

Director, Producer, Editor: Max Cianci
Director of Photography: Raffaele DiLullo
Music: Dylan Kersten
GoPro Footage: Mary Wilcop

© Carnegie Museum of Art, 2025