Hany Armanious
Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012, Sydney. Photo: Paul Green.
Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012, Sydney. Photo: Paul Green.
Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012, Sydney. Photo: Paul Green.
Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012, Sydney. Photo: Paul Green.
Detail view, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012, Sydney. Photo: Paul Green.
Detail view, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012, Sydney. Photo: Paul Green.
Installation view, Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale. Photo by Mara Comin.
Installation view, Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale. Photo by Mara Comin.
Installation view, Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale. Photo by Mara Comin.
Photo by Mara Comin.
Photos by Mara Comin.
Photos by Mara Comin.
Photos by Mara Comin.
Photos by Mara Comin
Photo by Mara Comin.
Installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo by Mark Woods
Installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo by Mark Woods.
Installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo by Mark Woods.
Hany Armanious, Birth of Venus, 2010, Cast resin with pigment, 4 3/8 x 48 x 49 1/8 in. (11 x 122 x 125 cm.) HA-FP1562
Hany Armanious, Happiness, 2010, cast polyurethane resin and pewter with pigment, 27 1/2 x 43 1/8 x 29 in. (70 x 109.5 x 73.7 cm.) HA_FP1561
Hany Armanious, Party Pooper, 2010, cast polyurethane resin, pigment, 56 x 3/4 x 23 1/2 x 26 3/8 in. (144 x 60 x 67 cm.) HA_FP1563
Hany Armanious, Sneeze Painting, 2010, perspex, polyurethane resin, air, 23 1/2 x 24 7/8 x 2 1/3 in. (60 x 63 x 6 cm.) HA_FP1567
Hany Armanious, Mystery of the Plinth, 2010, polystyrene, polyurethane, epoxy, silicone, pigment, 96-1/2 x 92-1/2 x 43-1/8 in.<br>(245 x 235 x 110 cm.) HA_FP1742. Photo: Greg Weight
Hany Armanious, The Oracle, 2008, cast polyurethane, blown glass, and asphalt, dimensions variable, HA-FP1221. Installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, MO. Curated by Anthony Huberman.
Hany Armanious, The Oracle, 2008, cast polyurethane, blown glass, and asphalt, dimensions variable, HA-FP1221. Installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, MO. Curated by Anthony Huberman.
Hany Armanious, The Oracle, 2008, cast polyurethane, blown glass, and asphalt, dimensions variable, HA-FP1221. Installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, MO. Curated by Anthony Huberman.
Hany Armanious, Magic Carpet, 2002, pencil and watercolor on tracing paper, 33 x 23.5 in. / 83.82 x 59.7 cm. HA-FP1301
Hany Armanious, Magic Carpet, 2002, pencil on tracing paper, 23.5 x 33 in. (59.7 x 83.82 cm.) HA_FP1302
Hany Armanious, Magic Carpet, 2002, pencil on tracing paper, 23.5 x 33 in. (59.7 x 83.82 cm.) FP_HA1303
Hany Armanious, Basic Instruction, 2007, PVC, 19 x 11 x 11 in. (48.2 x 27.9 x 27.9 cm.) HA_FP1036
Hany Armanious, Fair Trade, 2008, Pure pigments, acid free cotton rag paper, polyurethane, u.v. proof polyurethane, expanding polyurethane, silicone, synthetic rope, p.v.c hook, 144 x 200 x 28 cm. Edition 2 with 1 AP, HA_FP1086
Hany Armanious, Porcelain Palace, 2008, Cast polyurethane on plywood, 8 x 16 x 2 in. (20.3 x 40.6 x 5.1 cm.) HA_FP1538
Installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo by Mark Woods.
Installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo by Mark Woods.
Installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo by Mark Woods.
Installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo by Mark Woods.
Detail
Hany Armanious, Year of the Pig Sty, 2007, mixed media, dimensions variable, installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo: Mark Woods
Installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo by Mark Woods.
Hany Armanious, Year of the Pig Sty, 2007, mixed media, dimensions variable, installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo: Mark Woods
Hany Armanious, Year of the Pig Sty, 2007, mixed media, dimensions variable, installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo: Mark Woods
Hany Armanious, Year of the Pig Sty, 2007, mixed media, dimensions variable, installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo: Mark Woods
Hany Armanious, Year of the Pig Sty, 2007, mixed media, dimensions variable, installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo: Mark Woods
Hany Armanious, Year of the Pig Sty, 2007, mixed media, dimensions variable, installation view, Foxy Production, New York. Photo: Mark Woods
Hany Armanious, Untitled, 2007, hair on paper, 42 x 31 in. (107 x 78 cm.) HA_FP1014
Hany Armanious, Untitled, 2007, hair on paper, 31 x 42 in. (78 x 107 cm.) HA_FP1016
Hany Armanious, Selflok, 1994-2001, hotmelt, mixed media, installation view, Selflok, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2001
Hany Armanious, Forging the Energy Body (Swegypt), 2004, pewter, chromed aluminium, plaster, adhesive stickers, brass, LCD monitor, spray enamel and silver marker on form-ply and steel, 61 x 46 x 35 in. (154 × 117 × 90 cm.)
Hany Armanious, Turns in Arabba, 2005, clay, wax, wick, pewter, plaster, polyurethane, wood, formply, peppercorns, silicone, ceramic, drums, speaker, 94 x 79 x 24 in. / 240 × 200 × 60 cm. Installation view, National Sculpture Prize, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Hany Armanious, Finding the Assemblage Point (Clay Pipes from Arabba), 2004, clay, wax, cotton, acrylic varnish, dowel and steel on form-ply and steel, 61 x 39 x 35.5 in. / 155 × 100 × 90 cm. Installation view, The Cult, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 2006
Hany Armanious, Scaring Away the Human Form (Death as Advisor), 2004, Black peppercorns, polyurethane on form-ply and steel, 59 x 56 x 43.5 in / 150 × 143 × 110.5 cm. Installation view, The Cult, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 2006
Hany Armanious, Muffin #1, 2003, expanding foam, pigment & paper, 15 x 22.5 x 22.5 in. (38 × 57 × 57 cm.)
Hany Armanious, Wall Rubbing, 2007, clogged sandpaper, 12.2 x 16 in. / 31 x 40.5 cm. (framed dimensions.) HA_FP1020
Hany Armanious, Wall Rubbing, 2007, clogged sandpaper, 12.2 x 16 in. / 31 x 40.5 cm. (framed dimensions.) HA_FP1011
Hany Armanious, Wall Rubbing, 2007, clogged sandpaper, 12.2 x 16 in. (31 x 40.5 cm.)(framed dimensions.) HA_FP1012
Hany Armanious, Dung Beetle Realigning the Planets, 2003, still from video, dimensions variable / 2 min. 39 sec. Edition of 5
Hany Armanious, Woman with Mushrooms, 2003, duraclear print on perspex, framed, 37.5 x 31.3 in. (95.5 × 79.5 cm.) Edition of 5, HA_FP1058
Hany Armanious, Walnut Walls, 2003, hotmelt, elastomeric gel, oil paint, plastic, 3 x 24 x 24 in. (8 × 61 × 61 cm.)
Hany Armanious, Adventures With Form in Space: 4th Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project, 2006, installation view, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Hany Armanious, Unrealistic, 2007, cast polyurethane, 37 x 24 in. (93 x 60 cm.) Edition of 5 with 1AP, HA_FP952

Hany Armanious produces installations, sculptures, and works on paper that engagingly investigate the relationships between artist and artwork. He consistently surprises with his deft working and reworking of objects, materials, and references, remodeling the everyday in oddly lyrical ways.

Armanious appropriates an unlikely mix of notions with an obsessive relationship to form. In his provocative work uncanny actions take place upon unexpected materials, resulting in enigmatic objects, scenes and associations. He turns the process of casting into a witty, symbolic system, through which he detours and digresses, fostering both bemusement and engagement.

Armanious’ choice and treatment of materials are bound up in layers of allegory. Nothing is sacred; his mergers of forms, substances and metaphors are perverse. Casting is always on the agenda, employed to sample and connect disparate textures and concept

Armanious confronts conventional notions of sculpture and questions the medium’s relevance. He references the mystical in all its incarnations, giving form to the abstract and creating voids. Popular philosophies are purposefully intermingled with art-historical ones, offering the chance for the formless to take shape, and everyday objects to wittily reveal their aura.

Robert Leonard writes “Armanious shares much with Beuys and Barney: the alchemy idea, conspiracies of art and occult knowledge, fantasies about the artist as the centre of the universe, and a passion for casting…[But] while he engages us in the seductive idea of art as a transformative or transcendental project, the deeper we get into it the more we become mired in mixed metaphors and conceits… His work is psychological and phenomenological rather than cosmological or religious. He sponsors metaphysical inquiry and pulls the rug out from under it.”

Hany Armanious (Ismalia, Egypt, 1962) lives and works in Sydney, Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts, City Art Institute, Sydney.

Selected exhibitions include: “Every Brilliant Eye: Australian Art of the 1990s” National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; “New World Order,” Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, NSW, Australia; “Future Eaters,” Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia (all 2017); “The Melting Point of Reason,” Margaret Lawrence Gallery, University of Melbourne, Australia (2015); “Post-Picasso. Contemporary Reactions,” Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Spain; “Selflok,” City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand (both 2014); “The Golden Thread,” Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Italy (solo) (2011); “The Oracle,” Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, MO (solo) (2008); “Morphic Resonance,” City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand; Morphic Resonance, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (solo) (2006); “Selflok,” Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne, Australia (2002); “Selflok,” UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2001).

Armanious’ works are in permanent public collections including: The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania, Australia; Ipswich Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, Australia; Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; Dakis Joannou Foundation, Athens, Greece.

CV
EXHIBITIONS
The Pencil Show 2010 Gallery
Hany Armanious 2010 Gallery
Double Hemisphere 2009 Gallery
Hany Armanious 2007 Gallery
Surface Wave 2007 Gallery
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY