EXHIBITION ABSTRACT

Daniel Arsham (b. 1980) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans the mediums of sculpture, architecture, drawing, film, and stage design. He was born in Cleveland and raised in Miami before moving to New York City to attend The Cooper Union on a full scholarship, receiving the Gelman Trust Fellowship Award in 2003. Arsham is cofounder of Snarkitecture, an architecture collaboration that has worked with fashion brands and interior and architectural design and has produced a complete line of functional design objects.

Arsham’s “eroded” works occupy a space where the concepts of yesterday, today, and tomorrow collide, representing a fictional archaeology wherein objects from our cultural and material present are unearthed at some point in the distant future. These casts of modern artifacts are created from geological materials such as sand, quartz, and selenite, appearing fossilized as if they have just been discovered after being buried for ages. Through the sculptures displayed in Arsham Auto Motive, the artist historicizes the automobile—a paragon of the modern era—and its related symbols, presenting the viewer with a glimpse of future history.

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Photos by Guillaume Ziccarelli. Courtesy the artist and Perrotin. Eroded Ferrari from the Collection of Larry Warsh.