Hany Armanious Explained

Birth Date:	1962
Birth Place:	Ismailia, Egypt
Education:	Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) degree, City Art Institute, Sydney.
Known For:	Installations, sculpture and painting

Hany Armanious (born 1962) is an Egyptian born, Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney.^[1] Armanious produces installations and sculptural forms, as well as paintings and drawings.

Life and work

Hany Armanious was born in Ismailia, Egypt and migrated to Australia with his family at the age of 6.^[2] He completed his schooling in Australia and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) degree from the City Art Institute, Sydney^[3] and a doctorate in Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong.^[4]) Since 2019 he has been Head of Sculpture at the National Art School in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.^[5] In the early nineties Armanious considered a ‘key figure’ in a number of artists who critics noted as being influenced by the grunge movement.^[6] Although born in Egypt and conscious of its cultural ties Armanious’s work does not specifically reference that culture.^[7] He has been described as an artist who can 're-describe objects' using ‘poor materials’.^[8] As his practice has developed Armanious has achieved this goal through making moulds of ordinary objects and replicating them as parts of completed works. As Armonious has himself said, ‘…my interest in casting partly grew from a technique in my painting that utilized contact prints. Casting is like three-dimensional printmaking.“^[9] Casting has now become central; to Armanious’s work and a ‘key strategy’ that allows him to bring almost any object that catches his eye into the studio and via casting to the exhibition space ‘refiguring elements and processes both literally and metaphorically’.^[10] In constructing and assembling his cast sculptures Armanious infuses and even ‘exploits’ the humorous potential brought to play on his work through the human need to find meaning within complicated and even abstract forms - the isomorphic condition that prompts us to find images and meaning in inkblots, clouds and other abstract combinations.^[11] The success of this idea can be seen in Australian art critic Rex Butler's descriptions of three plastic shopping bags Armanious presented as the work Ladybug (Pornament) in 1993. Butler looks at the work and questions whether they resemble a green skirt and white blazer, inverted pantyhose, or perhaps ‘a man crucified head down and arms wide like St. Peter’.^[12]

Exhibitions

Armanious has shown with a number of dealer galleries and currently exhibits with Michael Lett in Auckland, Fine Arts, Sydney and Southard Reid in London. He has also shown with Foxy Production in New York, Sarah Cottier Gallery and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, Galleria Raucci/Santamaria, Naples and the Galerie Allen in Paris.

Selected exhibitions in public art institutions:

• The Readymade Boomerang; Certain Relations in 20th-century Art (group) 8^th Biennale of Sydney. 1990 Artistic Director René Block focussed on Duchamp and the power of the readymade on 20^th century art.^[13]
• Perspecta (group) Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. 1991 Curated by Victoria Lynn.
• The Boundary Rider 9th Biennale of Sydney (group). 1992 Artistic Director: Anthony Bond.
• Wit’s end  Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney. 1993 (group) Curated by Kay Campbell.^[14]
• Aperto ’93 at the 45th Venice Biennale 1993 (group). Directed by Achille Bonito Oliva.
• Plastic Fantastic (group) Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. 1993
• Aussemblage (group) Auckland City Gallery, New Zealand.^[15] 1994
• Johannesburg Biennale (group) South Africa.^[16] 1995
• Möet and Chandon Touring Art (group) Prize National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 1998 Touring all state galleries. Armanious was the 1998 Fellow.^[17] Armanious was also included in the 2000 edition of the Möet et Chandon Fellows Exhibition at Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
• Hammer Projects: Hany Armanious Hammer Museum Los Angeles.^[18] 2001
• Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968 – 2002 (group) National Gallery of Victoria, 2002 Federation Square, Melbourne.^[19]
• Bloom mutation, toxicity and the sublime. (group) Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand.^[20] 2003
• National Sculpture Prize 2005 (group) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.^[21] 2005
• Hany Armanious: Artists Project Auckland Art Gallery.^[22] 2005
• Before the Body-Matter (group) Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne. 2006
• Uncanny Nature Australia Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne. 2006 Curated by Rebecca Coates.^[23]
• Busan Biennale (group) Korea.^[24] 2006
• Hany Armanious: Morphic Resonance^[25] City Gallery, Wellington^[26] and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane 2007. The exhibition title comes from biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s theory around the ‘unseen interconnectedness of things’.^[27]
• Hany Armanious Contemporary Art Museum ST Louis, United States of America.^[28] 2008
• Ceramica (group) Institute of Contemporary Art, Sydney. 2008
• Before and After Science Adelaide Biennale. 2010 (group) Curated by Charlotte Day and Sarah Tutton, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.^[29]
• The Golden Thread (2011) at The fifty- fourth Venice Biennale. 2011 Armanious was the Australian representative at the 54^th Biennale his work examining, ‘the relationship between the readymade and figurative sculptural traditions’.^[30]
• Mutatis Mutandis (group) Secession, Vienna.^[31] 2012
• Hany Armanious’s Fountain Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney. 2013 Armanious’s installation was the Inaugural Museum of Contemporary Art Sculpture the first in a series of commissions on the MCA’s new Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace. The sculpture was based on an anatomical model of the inner ear.^[32]
• Future Eaters (group) MUMA (Monash University Museum of Art), Melbourne.^[33] 2017
• Hany Amanious Stone Soup Henry Moore Foundation.^[34] 2024

Note

For a full list of Hany Armanious exhibitions go here

Collections

• Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Chartwell Collection
• Heide
• National Gallery of Australia
• MCA
• Queensland Art Gallery
• National Gallery of Victoria
• Monash University Gallery
• Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
• Auckland City Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Awards

1998 Moët et Chandon fellowship

2004 Artist in residence, Elam School of Fine Arts International Arts Residency Programme, Auckland.^[35]

Further reading

• Armstrong, Fergus and Amanda Rowell. "Selflok", Hany Armanious, 21 August – 28 October 2001, UCLA Hammer Museum, 2001.
• Coates, Rebecca. "Hany Armanious", Uncanny Nature, Australia Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2006.
• Desmond, Michael. "Hany Armanious", Broadsheet, vol. 32, no. 3, September – November 2003: 35.
• Dougal Phillips, Review of 'Adventures in Form and Space, Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project 2006,' Art and Australia, Vol. 44, No. 2, Summer 2006, p. 280.
• Jasper, Adam. "Hany Armanious-Pragmatic metaphysics, painstaking copies and infinite pedestals." Frieze, Issue 114, April 2008: 154–155.
• Jasper, Adam. "Unreality Bites", Art World, Issue 8, April–May 2009: pp 74–80
• Jenks, Debra. "Muckrakers and Mudslingers on 27th St." Chelsea Now, 26 – 1 October 2007: 23.
• Leonard, Robert. "Catalogue of Errors." Morphic Resonance- Hany Armanious. City Gallery, Wellington and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2007: 20–30.
• Markou, Jason. "The Sorcerer's Crocs", Morphic Resonance- Hany Armanious. City Gallery, Wellington and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2007
• Markou, Jason. "Hany Armanious", Adventures With Form in Space, Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2006, pp. 72–82
• Palmer, Daniel, 'Looking Back: Retrospectives,' Frieze, Issue 104, December – January 2007, p. 132
• Smith, Roberta. "Hany Armanious", The New York Times, 23 November 2007: E40.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Armanious, Hany - OzArts . 26 August 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090913172753/http://www.ozarts.com.au/artists/hany_armanious . 13 September 2009 . dead .
2. Web site: Hany Armanious . 18 July 2024.
3. Web site: Hany Armanious . 18 July 2024.
4. Web site: Armanious . Hany . From Nothing – Mimetic Seeing and Making . 18 July 2024.
5. Web site: Hany Armanious Appointed to Head of Sculpture . 18 July 2024.
6. Book: MCA collection handbook . 2016 . Museum of Contemporary Art Australia . 978-1-921034-84-8 . Bullock . Natasha . The Rocks, Sydney, Australia . Museum of Contemporary Art.
7. Fahd . Cherine . 2019 . Contemporary Australian Artists from the Middle Eastern Diaspora . Journal of Middle East and North African Migration Studies . 6 . 1.
8. Web site: 7 June 2011 . SBS STVDIO documentary: Hany Armanious – The Golden Thread . 18 July 2024.
9. Krischer . Olivier Plundering . May 2011 . The Uncanny Valley: Hany Armanious  . ArtAsiaPacific . 73 . 120-129.
10. Book: Markou, Jason . Turns in Arabba: Hany Armanious . 2005 . Michael Lett Publishing.
11. Butler . Rex . 2000 . Hany Armanious: The Gift of Sight . Art & Text . 68 . 66-70.
12. Book: MacAloon, William . Home and away: contemporary Australian and New Zealand art from the Chartwell Collection . 1999 . Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki [u.a.] . Exhibition Home and Away: Contemporary Australian and New Zealand Art from the Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Chartwell Collection . 978-1-86953-427-1 . Auckland . 102.
13. Web site: Biennale of Sydney . 18 July 2024.
14. Web site: Wits End . 18 July 2024.
15. Web site: Aussemblage: Everyday Objects Transformed . 18 July 2024.
16. Web site: Johannesburg Biennale . 18 July 2024.
17. Web site: Exhibitions . 18 July 2024.
18. Web site: Hammer Projects: Hany Armanious . 18 July 2024.
19. Web site: Exhibitions: Fieldwork . 18 July 2024.
20. Web site: Bloom, Toxicity and the Sublime . 18 July 2024.
21. Web site: Exhibitions 2005: National Sculpture Prize and Exhibition . 18 July 2024.
22. Web site: Hany Armanious: Artist Project . 18 July 2024.
23. Web site: Before the Body Matter: Works from the Monash University Collection with Selected Loans . 18 July 2024.
24. Web site: Busan Biennale . 18 July 2024.
25. Book: Armanious, Hany . Morphic resonance: Hany Armanious . Galbraith . Heather . Leonard . Robert . 2007 . Institute of Modern Art ; City Gallery Wellington . Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane, Qld.), City Gallery Wellington . 978-1-875792-60-3 . Fortitude Valley, Qld. : Wellington.
26. Web site: Hany Armanious: Morphic Resonance . 18 July 2024.
27. Web site: Hany Armanious: Morphic Resonance . 18 July 2024.
28. Web site: Hany Armanious . 18 July 2024.
29. Web site: Adelaide Biennale: Australian art and After Science . 18 July 2024.
30. Web site: Hany Armanious: The Golden Thread . 18 July 2024.
31. Web site: Mutatis Mutandis . 18 July 2024.
32. August 2013 . Fons et Origo, or, Trompe l’Oreille Fountain: Hany Armanious  . Art Monthly Australasia . 262 . 27-29.
33. Web site: Future Eaters . 18 July 2024.
34. News: Goodpasture . Eliza . 15 July 2024 . A load of rubbish … or a whole new reality? Hany Armanious on his ‘redemptive’ replicas show . 18 July 2024 . The Guardian.
35. Web site: Elam International Artist in Residence programme . 18 July 2024.