Siah Armajani


Sia Armajani is an Iranian-born American sculptor and architect known for his public art.

Biography

Siavash Armajani was born in 1939 in Tehran. In 1960, Armajani immigrated to the United States to attend college at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, as he had family living in the US.
Siah Armajani designed the Olympic Torch presiding over the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. He has worked on other projects such as the New York Staten Island tower and bridge, the Round Gazebo in Nice, France, and the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. He created Bridge Over Tree, a 91 foot long walkway with stairs that rise and fall over an evergreen tree.
His 2005 work, Fallujah, is a modern take on Picasso's Guernica but was censored in the U.S. due to its critical view of the war in Iraq. It was recently on view at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
One of Armajani's important projects is located at North Shore Esplanade at St. George's Ferry Terminal, Staten Island, NY. Armajani has said:
"All buildings and all streets are ornaments. Moreover, the lighthouse and bridge gives a place to the representational arts of poetry, music, and performing. By embracing all of the arts, the lighthouse and bridge asserts its own perspective everywhere."
In 2010, he won a Knight Fellow award granted by United States Artists.
An exhibition at Muelensteen Gallery in 2011 presented a dozen of Armajani's early pieces created in the years leading up to his arrival in America. Many employ ink or watercolor on cloth or paper, and incorporate text. In his "Shirt", Armajani uses pencil and ink to completely cover his father's shirt in Persian script.
Several of his works are held by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Siah Armajani: Follow This Line, the first comprehensive US retrospective dedicated to the artist, was on view at the Walker Art Center September 9 through December 30, 2018, and at the Met Breuer February 20 through June 2, 2019.