The New York artist Daniel Arsham will hold solo exhibitions at the Shanghai HOW Art Museum “PERPETUAL PRESENT”, opening on 28th June, the exhibition will be held from 29th June – 24th October 2019.
Daniel Arsham was born in 1980 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA and lived in Miami. He studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. Recipient of the Gelman Trust Fellowship in 2003. In 2004, Daniel Arsham was invited by choreographer Merce Cunningham to serve as the stage designer for the “EyeSpace”. This collaboration made him famous and became a turning point in his life. More and more well-known brands and stars, like Adidas, Rimowa, Pharrell Williams, Usher, DIOR, etc. have come to collaboration with him. To combining art with architectural design, he founded the Snarkitecture with his classmate Alex Mustonen in 2007.
Daniel Arsham's works include sculpture, architecture, painting and film. Among the many works, the most famous one is the series of future relics, he represented many items in modern life in an archaeological way. Imagine the phone, camera, stereo, keyboard, etc. in our lives, even the Rimowa suitcase, which was discovered by tens of thousands of years after being dug by future humans. These works are mainly black, gray and white, and it`s just like the weathering and erosion that has really gone through tens of thousands of years. When people watch the works, they will cause confusion because of the works, and rethink the space and time concept they know.
The future relics works' creative concept is the Fictional Archaeology. The concept comes from when he was 12 years old, a hurricane that destroyed his home in Miami. It was the first time he saw a broken house, and he could clearly see the scattered items in the house from the outside. This incident influenced him to generate ideas of Fictional Archaeology, you can see some works such as the weathered wall, the eroded pillar, the trapped space, and the buildings covered by nature. These works also broke some established concepts and cognitions of the public.
Daniel Arsham's work is mostly in white, gray, and black because he is color blind, but the colorblind turns into a source of inspiration for his creation. He collaborated with Semaine in 2016, released a documentary that recode a specially designed glasses that can help color blind people see the full color. So he wore that glasses and began to explore the color of everything in life. He said on Instagram: I am color blind. My eyes do not absorb enough green. This affects the way I see all colors. I have just tried on specially designed glasses that repair my color blindness. I spent about an hour afterward staring at grass. I'm making a film about the experience. After knowing more colors, Daniel Arsham came up with the conclusion that although more colors can be seen, it is much easier to be distracted. In order to concentrate on creation, only when color matching, special glasses come in handy. It can be found that his recent works are no longer just black and white, but also add many different colors.
Daniel Arsham’s works have been exhibited in Carréd’Art de Nîmes, France, The Athens Bienniale in Athens, Greece, PS1 in New York, The New Museum in New York, etc. and public collection agency includes Centre Pompidou, Paris, MOCA in Miami, Dior Collection、Fondation Louis Vuitton.
This exhibition in Shanghai “PERPETUAL PRESENT” is Daniel Arsham specially designed for the HOW Art Museum. The exhibition will bring he's masterpieces and recent works, there will also be a Pop-up HOW Store with limited merchandise associated with the archaeological collection.
Figure 1: Dior-SS20 Menswear collection © Adrien Dirand © Dior
Figure 2 left top：Daniel Arsham © Daniel Arsham
Figure 2 top middle：Blue Calcite National Geographic Magazine © Daniel Arsham
Figure 2 right top : Circa 2345 © Daniel Arsham
Figure 2 left bottom：Dior-SS20 Menswear collection © Adrien Dirand
Figure 2 right : Wrapped Bear © Daniel Arsham © Dior
