Daniel Arsham brings his 21st-century relics to Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Is there a busier artist than Daniel Arsham right now? The American used Frieze week to open his largest UK solo show to date at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield and launch a takeover of Marylebone newsagents Shreeji.

Relics in the Landscape sees Arsham embed six of his giant bronze sculptures within the picturesque, 18th-century formal gardens of the YSP. Among this cache of new pieces is his Neil Armstrong-inspired’ Bronze Eroded Astronaut’, 2022, ‘Bronze Eroded Bunny (Large)’, 2022 and neoclassical style ‘Bronze Eroded Venus of Arles (Large)’ (2022). The three-metre-tall figure is Arsham’s reimagining of the ancient marble statue of Aphrodite, carved in the 1st century BCE, recast in bronze.

Photography by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images for Daniel Arsham

Arsham’s use of erosion transforms the sculptures from modern pop-culture objects into what he dubs ‘future relics’ that are reminiscent of the fragmented artefacts and objects unearthed on YSP’s grounds, which have been inhabited since the 11th century. These ‘relics’ forge a conversation across the decades and provoke questions about what holds cultural value and what deserves preservation – and even celebration.

Daniel Arsham x Sheerji, Chiltern Street.

Meanwhile, in London, to coincide with Frieze – where he’s also showing his ‘Quartz Eroded Bather’, 2022, at the Perrotin booth – Arsham is taking over the magazine racks of Marylebone newsagent Shreeji. A local stalwart since 1982, the Chiltern Street store was acquired by Gabriel Chipperfield in 2020. His studio Selected Works redeveloped it as a multi-use event space and temple for all things print.

Arsham has daubed the store in his trademark green while the interiors house an archive of his smaller eroded pieces, such as his ‘Crystal Relic 001’ and ‘Eroded Porsche Carrera 911’.

If you’re visiting 180 The Strand for the recent Richard Mosse or Universal Everything exhibitions (or perhaps to check out New School Represents’ MAJOR art show), you can also stop by a pair of Arsham’s Bronze Eroded Pokemon, situated in the courtyard within a Japanese dry garden.

Daniel Arsham: Relics in the Landscape is on show now at Yorkshire Sculpture park. The Bronze Garden Oasis Among Concrete is at 180 The Strand (ongoing), and his takeover of Sheerji Newsagents concludes on 16 October 2022.