Daniel Arsham is an American artistknown 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 Unionand 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.
Alongside fellow Snarkitecture founders Alex Mustonen and Ben Porto, Arsham helped create The Beach, a 2015 installation, and in 2019 the studio opened Snark Park, its first permanent exhibition space, in New York's Hudson Yards, debuting with the show “Lost and Found”.
His ongoing Future Relic series recasts everyday objects, including clocks, telephones and cassette players, as eroded sculptures,,and includes pieces made in collaboration with Dior.Arsham has described his brand partnerships, which began with Adidas around 2013-2014, as a way to fund his sculptural process rather than let a brand use his work to sell products.
Arsham served as artistic director of ComplexCon's 2025 Hong Kong edition.In 2023 he made Hov's Hands, a cast of Jay-Z's arms and hands making a diamond hand sign, for the exhibition “The Book of Hov” at the Brooklyn Public Library.
