DANIEL ARSHAM

From Pieter Claesz to Paul Cezanne, still life painting has been a favoured genre of contemporary painters illustrating interests, innovations, and objects from everyday life since the fifteenth century. In Arsham’s debut of this new series of paintings, he draws from his own index of artifacts and iconography, building up intricate scenes with a lush impasto style of painting. In recent bodies of work, Arsham has meditated on antique statuary, reimagining these iconic figures in geological materials. In Still Life with Bust of Apollo, Arsham brings his own crystallised sculpture of the Greek god into the picture plane. Recognised for his idyllic form and many talents from sport and performance to his affinity for healing, Apollo is perched atop a tower of novels and catalogs that inform a diversity of interests from Herman Miller’s A Way of Living to Jeanneret’s monograph on architecture aninterior design. Arsham frames the scene in lush boules of fabric, alongside Air Jordan sneakers and a multi-colored basketball thatbalances against the other elements. In each painting, Arsham weavestogether contemporary interests, curiosities and aspirations thattranscend the artist’s personal affinities to create layered narratives.

Installed nearby, Arsham presents two new sculptures of the Greek god Hermes and the Italian nobleman Giuliano de’ Medici. Eachsculpture is iconic in its own rite, drawing from sculptures dating fromAntiquity to the Renaissance. In the representation of Hermes, Arshamreimagines a sculpture of the Greek god from the fourth century B.C.that is housed in the collections of the Archaeological Museum ofOlympia, Greece. The second sculpture of Julien, Duke of Nemoursisolates a portion of a larger sculpture by Michaelangelo housed in thechurch of San Lorenzo in Florence. Re-casting these sculptures in ahybridized form between bronze and polished stainless steel, Arshampresents the works as if suspended between a state of decay andregeneration.

In the adjacent gallery, three hydrostone movie posters represent the films E.T., Back to the Future, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Theseposters that once adorned movie preview placards and the walls ofinfectious fans, have become artifacts of the past. Arsham recasts themin geological crystals, as if uncovered in a state of entropy.

Arsham has concurrent exhibitions at MAMO Cité Radieuse Arts Center, Marseille, France, Saatchi Gallery and 180 the Strand, London,United Kingdom, and the LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, NewYork, USA. Arsham will be the subject of a solo exhibition at theYorkshire Sculpture Park, and his work will be presented at the CentrePompidou-Metz, France, Fall 2022.