Hossein Valamanesh


Hossein Valamanesh is an Australian contemporary artist. Valamanesh emigrated to Australia in 1973, and lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia.

Works

He has completed a number of major public art commissions including 14 Pieces on North Terrace, in Adelaide and An Gorta Mor, the Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine, at Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, both with Angela Valamanesh. The Irish Famine memorial is incorporated into the wall surrounding the Barracks and "ironically, stands on the site of the original kitchens" there. The table, bowl, tools and utensils are cast in bronze and the names of 400 women who arrived as famine orphans are etched into the glass part of the memorial walls. Among the estimated 2,500 people attending the memorial's unveiling on 28 August 1999, were 800 famine orphan descendants.
His 1997 combined performance, photography and sculpture work Longing, belonging which involved burning a Persian rug in the outback to explore the migrant experience, is in the collection of the Art Gallery of NSW and featured in the 2013 ABC BBC joint production documentary The Art of Australia: Strangers in a Strange Land.

Career

Valamanesh attended the Tehran School of Art, graduating in 1970, and later the South Australia School of Art, graduating in 1977. He was awarded an Australia Council Fellowship 1998. A major survey of his work was held at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2001 and in 2002 a survey of more recent work was held at Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.

Public art collections

Valamanesh's field is contemporary art. His work is included in most major public Australian art collections, including: