Credit: Studio Comin

The Australian Pavilion

54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

HANY ARMANIOUS

THE GOLDEN THREAD

Artist Hany Armanious
Curator Anne Ellegood
Commissioner Doug Hall AM
Deputy Commissioner Simon Mordant

The Australian exhibition at the 54th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, is a project of the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian government's arts funding and advisory body.

Location
Australian Pavilion in the Giardini di Castello
La Biennale di Venezia dates
4 June – 27 November 2011

La Biennale di Venezia Vernissage dates
1 June – 3 June 2011
Hours
1-3 June – Daily, 10:00-19:00
4 June – 27 November – Tuesday – Sunday, 10:00-18:00

Sydney, Australia, May 23, 2011: The official Australian representation at the 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia is Hany Armanious.
Entitled Hany Armanious The Golden Thread, the exhibition is curated by Anne Ellegood, Senior Curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Doug Hall AM is the Australian Commissioner. The exhibition is presented in the Australian Pavilion in the Giardini di Castello.

“Australia has had a continuing presence at the Venice Biennale since 1954. I am delighted that Hany Armanious represents Australia this year. Hany's art is panoramic, and embraces ideas and imagery regardless of place. His work is insightful, poignant, and often humorous”, says Commissioner Doug Hall.

Based in the process of casting, Armanious's sculptures present a double take on objects ranging from ancient history to the everyday. His meticulous casts of found objects – usually redundant or discarded items that feature the wear and tear of their past lives – are deliberately created in nonprecious materials, most commonly polyurethane resin.

Armanious redefines the traditional intention of casting – creating multiple identical reproductions of an object – and instead uses the process to create unique objects. Both the original object and the mould are often destroyed, and the scrupulously cast inanimate objects become artifacts of sorts, temporarily diverting focus from the object itself to the process of its making and evolution. The Australian Pavilion will feature a series of eleven works, mostly new, and a few older pieces. “Armanious's invocation of ancient forms and cultures, his embrace of a nearly alchemical transformation of one material into another, and his interest in incorporating the processes of making and displaying works of art into the sculptures themselves, underscore his desire to locate the mysterious within the mundane” says curator Anne Ellegood. “By arguing that objects in our everyday life – leaf-blowers, vases, teapots, baskets, irons, window blinds, or even a cardboard Burger King crown – can carry as much visual pleasure, as much potential for beauty, as those things designed or deemed to be in the domain of aesthetics, his work is an acknowledgement that there is more to this world than meets the eye.”

Hany Armanious The Golden Thread will be open to the public from 4 June to 27 November 2011, Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 – 18:00. The Australian exhibition at the 54th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, is a project of the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian government's arts funding and advisory body.

About Hany Armanious
Sydney-based artist Hany Armanious was born in 1962 in Ismalia, Egypt. He received his Bachelor of Visual Arts at the City Art Institute in Sydney in 1984.
He has presented solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri (2008); the City Gallery in Wellington, New Zealand (2008); the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane (2006); and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2001), among others. His work was also presented in solo exhibitions at galleries around the world, including Foxy Production in New York (2010, 2007); Galleria Raucci/Santamaria, Naples, Italy (2009); Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney (2009, 2006, 2004, 2003); and Michael Lett Gallery in Auckland (2008, 2006, 2004, 2003).
His work was included in the Busan Biennale, Korea (2006), the Johannesburg Biennale (1995), the Venice Biennale (1993), and the 9th Sydney Biennale (1992) and is in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California, and the private collection of Dakis Joannou in Athens, Greece. His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including Tonite at The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2009); Double Hemisphere at Foxy Production, New York (2009); Ceramica at Institute of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2008); Jesuvian Process at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York (2008); Strange Cargo: Contemporary Art as a State of Encounter, Newcastle Region Art Gallery (2007, with tour); Stolen Ritual at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2006); Uncanny Nature, Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2006); Travelling Light at Spacement, Melbourne (2005); Bloom mutation, toxicity and the sublime at Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand (2003), and many others.
In 2005, Armanious was shortlisted for the National Sculpture Prize at the National Gallery of Australia, and he has been awarded several residencies, such as the Australia Council residency in New York City and the Australia Council's Los Angeles studio. Hany won the prestigious Moet and Chandon Fellowship in 1998.

About Anne Ellegood
Anne Ellegood is the Senior Curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, CA. She was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington DC from 2005-2009. Previously, she was the New York-based Curator for Peter Norton's collection, and from 1998-2003, she was the Associate Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. For June 2012, she is part of a curatorial team from the Hammer and LA ART organizing the first Los Angeles Biennial.

About Doug Hall AM
Doug Hall is Australian Commissioner for the Venice Biennale 2011. From 1987 until April 2007 he was director of the Queensland Art Gallery. He has initiated, negotiated and curated many major exhibitions from within Australia and internationally. Under his directorship the Queensland Art Gallery expanded its international focus and developed a strong engagement with Asia, especially through his initiative, the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. His reputation as a keen supporter of contemporary art is widely known. He conceived the idea for the Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane) and oversaw its development which opened in December 2006. Doug is well connected in art, business and government circles in Australia and is highly regarded by the international art community. He was also the Australian Commissioner for the Biennale in 2009, leading a strong national participation with Shaun Gladwell represented in the Australian Pavilion, which was met with critical success. The Australia Council is delighted to again work under his artistic leadership and vision.

Australia at the Venice Biennale – La Biennale di Venezia
Australia's long history of representation at the Venice Biennale, began in 1954 with the exhibition of Sidney Nolan's iconic works, followed by visual arts luminaries such as Arthur Boyd, Rosalie Gascoigne and Albert Tucker.
Other past Australian representatives include Imants Tillers (1986), Judy Watson, Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1997), Howard Arkley (1999), Patricia Piccinini (2003), Ricky Swallow (2005), Susan Norrie, Daniel Von Sturmer and Callum Morton (2007) and Shaun Gladwell (2009). As the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body, the Australia Council for the Arts has managed and funded Australia's participation in the Venice Biennale since 1978. The council owns the Australian Pavilion, designed by renowned Australian architect, Philip Cox.

Sponsors
The Australia Council for the Arts acknowledges and thanks the following project supporters:
Major support is generously provided by The Balnaves Foundation. Additional funding is generously provided by Maddocks, Museum of Old and New Art, New Albion Gallery and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery. Further support is provided by Arts NSW, Arts Victoria, Arts Queensland, Department of Culture and the Arts WA, Arts NT, and Arts Tasmania; through the Commissioner's Council of Simon and Catriona Mordant, Glyn Davis AC represented by Charles Green, Penelope Seidler AM and Roslyn and Tony Oxley; and many individuals through the Australia Venice Biennale 2011 Champions Program.

The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body
Media contact
Victoria McClelland-Fletcher
02 9215 9008
v.mcclelland@australiacouncil.gov.au

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