New York City — At times, Armia Khalil felt like he was whittling his life away after he immigrated to New York from Egypt in 2006 with nothing but $400 in his pocket and a suitcase of sculpting tools.
He had studied fine art in Egypt through the generosity of a cousin, and now he sought to make his dreams come true in New York City. But that didn’t happen. Instead, he shared a bedroom with construction workers in New Jersey and struggled to find consistent work.
“I was so naïve,” Khalil told CBS News. “I didn’t have any plan, just that one-way ticket and my dreams.”
His dreams of becoming a professional sculptor weren’t working out, and he wanted to at least be around art even if he couldn’t make a living off it. So, in 2012, Khalil received a job as a security guard at the iconic Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he could at least be in the presence of masters.
“I was just trying to find any job to make a living because I was in debt,” Khalil said. “I sent so many emails. I didn’t have any security experience. But this is the Met. I was so happy.”
Khalil finally had a stable job, but he admits that even standing in the museum, he would often long to be creating something.
“I cried within myself inside the gallery many times, wondering why it didn’t work out for me,” Khalil said.
Then, a couple years ago, Khalil struck up a conversation with a visitor. At least, he thought he was a visitor. But in fact he was speaking to Akili Tommasino, curator for the Met’s Department of Modern of Contemporary Art.
Khalil happened to mention to Tommasino that he was an Egyptian artist himself.
“When Armia mentioned that he was Egyptian, I asked him if I could see his work, and at that point, I revealed my identity,” Tommasino said.
In 2018, Tommasino had launched a search for the very best examples of art inspired by ancient Egypt. He spent six years looking far and wide for new art. But it was with a Met security guard that he found a new piece.
The only way Tommasino could explain it was as a “divinely ordained encounter.”
Khalil’s sculpture, carved out of a single piece of ash wood over the course of five months, is part of a major exhibit on display at the Met through Feb. 17 called “Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–.”
He never imagined that, one day, his work would be here, too.
“It’s unbelievable,” Khalil said. “That was a real surreal moment for me.”
Several people told Tommasino that they have visited the exhibit just to see Khalil’s work. He is now a celebrity of sorts, the security guard who guards his own work — at least for the time being.
“That is a risk,” joked Tommasino when asked about losing Khalil as a security guard.
“I cried,” Khalil said of the first time he saw his work in the exhibit. “Everything flashed in front of me. It was surreal. Keep dreaming. Keep hoping all the time.”
