"Skin of Earth" is among the shimmering works by El Anatsui.

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El Anatsui has the Midas touch. The African artist, whose sculptures are on exhibit at the University of Arizona Museum of Art through Jan. 20, takes cast-off junk such as liquor-bottle caps, tops from evaporated milk tins, pierced metal sheeting and old printing plates and turns them into artistic gold — majestic sculptural structures alive with color and tactile excitement.

But if the materials El Anatsui uses bring the word "recycling" to mind, the artist would disagree.

"I think the right word is transforming — you talk about recycling when you are returning something to its former function," he says in the exhibition catalog. "So, yes, these are transformed into something else, or given a new life, a new function."

The power of El Anatsui's vision springs from a unique combination of artistic resources. On the one hand, he has the cultural sophistication of an art professor (at the University of Nigeria) and an internationally acclaimed gallery artist who has attracted a growing audience since he first appeared at the Venice Biennale in 1990. On the other hand, as a Ghanaian working for many years in Nigeria, he channels enormous energy from African ritual and spiritual life into his work.

As for materials and techniques, El Anatsui's sculptures spring directly from the African experience. His various "cloth" pieces — which look from a distance like glittering, crumpled tapestries — reveal themselves on closer examination to be woven from such discards as Nigerian liquor-bottle tops that still show names like "Nobleman," "Bakassi" and "007," all painstakingly sewn together with bits of wire to make a fabric suggestive of traditional kente cloth.

And there's no accident in the fact that the names showing on the bottle tops reveal their humble origin. That's part of the subtle combination of references at play in El Anatsui's work — evocations of African history, everyday local life and tribal practice.

So "Crumbling Wall," the centerpiece of the UAMA exhibition, looks from a distance like a single structure. Close up, it turns out to be an assemblage of flattened tins and old bits of sheet metal punctured with nail holes to make graters for turning cassava root into a coarse flour called gari, a staple food in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Togo.

Gary Nusinow, UAMA's marketing director, said in a phone interview that it's details like these that give El Anatsui's work its special power. Nusinow is fascinated that the works can have a different impact, depending on the viewing point.

"Even the flat ones," Nusinow said, "end up enveloping you as you come closer; the detail, the surfaces, the colors begin to fill you. Photos give you some idea, but you really need to see them in person — the closer you get, the more you realize that yes, this is trash, but trash transformed into something startling and precious by El Anatsui's creative vision."

"El Anatsui: GAWU" – 7 large-scale sculptures by the artist

• When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Fridays; noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Jan. 20. Closed Mondays and university holidays.

• Where: University of Arizona Museum of Art, UA Fine Arts Complex, East Speedway and North Park Avenue.

• Tickets: Free.

• Information: 621-7567, artmuseum.arizona.edu.

African artist gives cast-off junk new life as pieces of art