Daniel Arsham, born in 1980, is an American multidisciplinary artist experimenting between visual art, architecture, and performance. He attended the Cooper Union in New York City, where he received the Gelman Trust Fellowship Award in 2003. Architecture is a huge focus point of his oeuvre, and concepts of sculpture and design are visible through all aspects of his practice. He explores concepts of fictional archaeology, creating sculptures, ruins, or scenes of decay and destruction with unexpected materials and techniques. He is also interested in liminal spaces, essentially the ambiguity that presents itself in in-between spaces. This is personified by works such as his crystallized sculptures, stark-white moulds of neo-classical statues that crumble in sections to reveal colourful internal geodes. He creates what has been referred to as future relics of the present, manipulating modern materials to appear eroded or unearthed.

Inspired by the collision of past and present, Arsham is often inspired by the evolution of technology and its effects on present-day and future society. He also transforms easily recognizable contemporary objects into stone sculptures, memorializing everyday objects while simultaneously reflecting notions of technological obsolescence, the digitalization of our world, and the romanticization of the past. His work straddles playfulness and doom, incorporating the drama of the Baroque with the humour of pop art, displaying the timelessness and enduring relevance of art and art historical imagery over cultures and eras. Arsham has also forayed into other industries including interior design and fashion, where his architectural and avant-garde approach is translated into wearable or liveable experiences. He is currently based in New York City.