Daniel Arsham [American, b. 1980]
Shanghai Chair, 2019
Resin, foam
H 36 x 36 x 36 inches
H 91.4 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm
Edition of 8
Signed and dated
Part of Daniel Arsham’s “Objects for Living I” series, Shanghai Chair was debuted at Arsham’s solo immersive installation at Friedman Benda’s Design Miami/ 2019 booth. The work is a continuation and further exploration of Arsham’s iconic and immediately recognizable practice of creating fossilized “future” relics that distort the viewer’s perception of space and time. It represents a significant departure for Arsham and signify the development of new vocabularies of form as he investigates, challenges and recreates classical archetypes in design.
Daniel Arsham’s practice exists at the intersection of art, architecture and performance. Through his work, Arsham poetically combines the past, present, and future, skirting the line between romanticism and pop art—while experimenting with the timelessness of certain symbols and cultural icons.
Arsham was born in 1980 in Cleveland, Ohio. Raised in Miami, Arsham attended The Cooper Union where he received the Gelman Trust Fellowship Award in 2003. Upon graduation, Arsham toured worldwide with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as the company’s stage designer for over four years—an experience that informed his ongoing synergistic practice. In 2007, he founded the pioneering architecture firm Snarkitecture with partner Alex Mustonen. Collaboration continues to be a key cornerstone of his practice—realizing high-profile projects with music producer Pharrell Williams and designer Hedi Slimane, as well as Dior, Porsche, and Rimowa.
Objects for Living (2019), Arsham’s first collaboration with the gallery, was inspired by Arsham’s recent renovation of his own Long Island home built in 1971 by the noted modernist architect Norman Jaffe. This body of work not only continued lines of investigation that he has pursued throughout his career, but also represented a significant departure for Arsham and heralds the development of new vocabularies of form.
Arsham has participated in numerous major international exhibitions, including at the Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; the HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, and the Moco Museum, Amsterdam. His works are included in the permanent collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL, and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN. Arsham lives and works in New York, NY.
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