Daniel Arsham is an American artist known for sculptures that treat familiar objects and pop-culture icons as if excavated by future archaeologists, casting them in materials such as volcanic ash, quartz, pyrite and calcite so they appear eroded or crystallized. He studied at Cooper Union and is represented by Galerie Perrotin, and he co-founded the design studio Snarkitecture.
In “3018”, his 2018 show at Perrotin in New York, Arsham recreated a 1981 DeLorean from the film Back to the Future and a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California from the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off at full scale, rendering them in fiberglass, steel, crystal, volcanic ash and quartz so they looked as if unearthed after centuries of decay. He revisited the theme in 2021 with “Turning Wrenches” at Library Street Collective in Detroit, working with the film's prop master to recreate the 1968 Ford Mustang GT that Steve McQueen drove in the film Bullitt.
