Daniel Arsham is one of the United States’ most influential rising talents in modern art, focusing primarily on the concept of fictional archaeology of the future.
Arsham’s best known collection of works are his “Future Relics,” which are eroded casts of everyday objects and iconographic sculptural works. They explore themes of nostalgia, consumerism, and pop culture.
His more recent works are of classical-seeming statues composed of volcanic ash and crystals, symbolizing a recomposition of the old and destroyed.
Throughout his wildly successful career, Daniel Arsham has established himself as one of America’s most influential interdisciplinary modern artists. Arsham’s diverse background in architecture, sculpture, drawing, painting, and film have come together in his pieces converging on the perplexing dichotomy of the decaying and the growing. “A lot of my own sculptural practice revolves around archaeology, and attempting the projection of a fictional archaeology of the future,” he told Dazed.
Finding success almost immediately after his first group gallery show in 2004, Arsham has built a creative empire surrounding his wildly popular “Future Relics,” in which he builds eroded casts of everyday items to represent something from the future-past. From Polaroid cameras to guitars, Arsham works to display the eventual degradation of new technologies and our most beloved possessions. Arsham’s replicas explore themes of nostalgia, consumerism, and pop culture. A three-part film series accompanies the project, providing a greater context around the relics.
Arsham plays with the construction of pieces that are both highbrow and lowbrow, while immersing the viewer in a space that exemplifies the concept of malleable architecture: the manipulation of the areas we inhabit, both in the gallery and our daily lives. His more recent works are of classical-seeming statues composed of volcanic ash and crystals, symbolizing a recomposition of the old and destroyed. Arsham’s cultural importance continues to rapidly expand, having become fast favorites of some of the biggest names in fashion, music, and film. He has collaborated with Dior, Adidas, and Louis Vuitton, and is one-half of the globally-recognized design project Snarkitecture.
