Daniel Arsham, one of today’s most influential figures in contemporary art and pop culture, has enamored the public with his mixed media cast renderings of various objects, from Porsche cars to Nike Air Zooms. Such eroded plaster cast renderings are filled with crystals, from quartz and selenite to volcanic ash, that help fill the seemingly mundane voids of these pop culture objects with new meaning. It is no surprise that Arsham has enjoyed collaborations with a variety of today’s well-known companies worldwide, including the notorious luxury goods company, Dior, as well as the sleek luggage manufacturer, RIMOWA.
The American artist describes himself as “straddling the line between art, architecture, and performance”, and this has been evidenced by his long-standing and well-known collaborative design firm, Snarkitecture. Snarkitecture was co-founded by Arsham and fellow artist Alex Mustonen in Brooklyn, NY in 2008. Together, Arsham and Mustonen focus on reusing and redesigning architecture within existing spaces—from stores to nightclubs—and have enjoyed collaborations with KITH stores from Miami to Los Angeles. Independent from his participation in Snarkitecture, Arsham has gone on to produce hundreds of artistic and architectural works that are so unique to his distinct style and persona, many of which were recently showcased at the Moco in Amsterdam, 2019.
Most recently, Daniel Arsham geared up for his latest exhibition, Paris, 3020 at Galerie Perrotin in Paris. The contemporary art gallery previously became the first gallery outside of Japan to showcase iconic artist Takashi Murakami’s works. For Arsham, this solo show is a continuation of his Fictional Archaeology series, which features casts of many iconic, classical busts and friezes from Greek and Roman antiquity. This body of work was made possible thanks to Arsham being granted access to the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, a 200 year old French molding atelier that reproduces iconic classical works—including those that occupy Museé du Louvre in Paris and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, among other notable European museums.
Paris, 3020 includes Arsham’s take on various classical pieces such as a bust of ancient Greek mathematician, Claudius Ptolemy, as well as Michelangelo’s iconic sculpture of Moses. Of course, Arsham allows for his own style to reinterpret the classical by presenting his personal take on antiquity, creating, quite literally, a fictional interpretation of archaeology. As with his personal take on pop-culture objects, Arsham partially erodes these casts, chisels them, and treats them prior to occupying the resulting voids with crystals. The exhibition opened its doors to the public from January 11th-March 21st.
