Dezeen Magazine

Daniel Arsham creates colourful cave from moulded sports balls at Galerie Perrotin

American artist and designer Daniel Arsham has created a cave from purple spheres as part of his first solo exhibition in New York (+ slideshow).

Arsham, who co-founded Brooklyn studio Snarkitecture, has installed the show at Galerie Perrotin in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Daniel Arsham Circa 2345 at Galerie Perrotin

Known for his use of white in artwork and installations, the artist has introduced colour into his work for the first time at the Circa 2345 exhibition.

It includes a room made from spheres that are illuminated to look a deep purple hue.

Daniel Arsham Circa 2345 at Galerie Perrotin

The orbs, all moulded from different sports balls of various sizes, are grouped to form a cave-like space inside a room on the lower floor.

They cover the walls and ceiling, forming niches, columns and stalactites.

Daniel Arsham Circa 2345 at Galerie Perrotin

This approach to creating space is similar to Snarkitecture's 2015 installation for fashion brand COS, formed from 100,000 metres of translucent white fabric shaped into tunnels.

"The piece is an expansion on Arsham's previous works exploring archeology, fiction and the collapsing of time," said the gallery.

Daniel Arsham Circa 2345 at Galerie Perrotin

Upstairs, more sports-themed sculptures are displayed within a white-walled space. Each of the pieces is made from crystalline calcite and is coloured blue.

Moulded jackets and helmets are mounted on the walls, while towers of rugby balls and footballs stretch from floor to ceiling.

Daniel Arsham Circa 2345 at Galerie Perrotin

"By using this particular crystalline calcite, each piece radiates an intense blue, the shock of colour opening up Arsham's artistic lexicon," the gallery said.

Arsham's previous solo shows have included an exhibition at SCAD, Georgia, which featured eroded, rippled and cloth-like wall installations.

Daniel Arsham Circa 2345 at Galerie Perrotin

He set up Snarkitecture with Alex Mustonen in 2008, and the studio's projects have ranged from covering a private jet with a sky-blue gradient to filling a Washington DC museum with nearly one million plastic balls.

Circa 2345 runs from 15 September to 22 October 2016 at Galerie Perrotin, 909 Madison Ave, New York.

Photography is by Guillaume Ziccarelli.