Siah Armajani (b. 1939, Tehran; died in 2020,Minneapolis  ) moved to the United States from Iran in 1960. He attended Macalester College, in Minnesota, where he studied philosophy. His sculptures, drawings and public works exist between the boundaries of art and architecture, informed by democratic and populist ideals.Armajani is recognized as a leading figure in the conceptualization of the role and function of public art, with nearly one hundred projects realized internationally since the 1960s.

The artist’s education in Western thought and philosophy began in Tehran, where he attended a Presbyterian school for Iranian students, and continued through his undergraduate years in the US. Early theoretical interests continue to influence his work, taking form in objects and architectural spaces designed in homage to literary, philosophical and political figures like Martin Heidegger, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodor Adorno, Ahmad Shamlou and Alfred Whitehead.

American vernacular architecture has been a consistent visual motif in Armajani’s practice, and is manifest in his public works, including bridges, gardens and outdoor structures. In the artist’s words: ‘I am interested in the nobility of usefulness. My intention is to buildopen, available, useful, common, public gathering places – gathering places that are neighbourly’. These concerns take form in his ongoing series titledReading Rooms and Reading Gardens, as well as public spaces, pavilions and shelters for social exchanges or solitary meditation. Armajani’s Tombs series (1972–2016)references both American modernist and vernacular architecture, playing tributeto figures including Walt Whitman, John Berryman, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, amongst others.

Armajani’s most celebrated public artworks are bridges, walkways and gardens, including the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge (1988),Minneapolis; the World Financial Center’s promenade (in collaboration withScott Burton and Cesar Pelli), Battery Park City, New York; Gazebo for TwoAnarchists, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York; Floating PoetryRoom, Ijburg, Amsterdam; Bridge for Iowa City, University of Iowa; and numerous gardens at Villa Arson Museum, Nice. He was commissioned to design the Cauldron for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.

The artist has been the subject of more than fifty solo exhibitions since 1978, including surveys and retrospectives atParasol unit, London (2013); the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City(2008); Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva (2007, tour); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (1999, tour); Villa Arson, Nice(1994); Lannan Foundation, Los Angeles (1992); Kunsthalle Basel (1987); Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster (1987, tour); and the Institute of Contemporary Art,Philadelphia (1985). Armajani’s career retrospective, Siah Armajani: FollowThis Line, was held at The Walker Art Center (9 September – 30 December 2018)and currently on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met Breuer) from the 20th of February to the 2nd of June 2019.

His work has also been featured in group exhibitions, including Postwar: ArtBetween the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945–1965, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2016);Passages in Modern Art: 1954–1966, Dallas Museum of Art (2016); Cycle Deshistoires sans fin, séquence automne–hiver 2015–2016, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva (2015); Art Expanded, 1958–1978 and Art at the Center: 75Years of Walker Collections, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2014); IranModern, Asia Society, New York (2013); Spectacular of the Vernacular,Minneapolis Institute of Arts (2011); Word into Art: Artists of the ModernMiddle East, British Museum, London (2006); Far Near Distance: ContemporaryPositions of Iranian Artists, House of World Cultures, Berlin (2004); CarnegieInternational, Pittsburgh (1988); Skulptur Projekte Münster ’87 (1987); InternationalSurvey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1984);74th Annual American Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago (1982); WhitneyBiennial; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1981); 39th VeniceBiennale, American Pavilion (1980); Information, Museum of Modern Art, New York(1970); and Documenta 5 (1972), 7 (1982) and 8 (1987), Kassel.

Armajani’s work is in numerous public collections, including Art Institute of Chicago; British Museum, London; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Dallas Museum of Art; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; M+, Hong Kong; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.