Daniel Arsham’s Canyons of the Unknown turns the ruin into a landscape

Daniel Arsham’s Canyons of the Unknown (2026) is listed at US $9,500 through Sotheby’s LIMITED selection, with access by enquiry. The work’s listing identifies a LITO Hi-Rnd print on paper, presented in a black aluminium frame and signed and numbered on a backplate. Its edition of 25 is half the numbered run of the companion Jungle Sculpture. These are the terms listed at the 7 October 2026 check.

LITO publishes dimensions of 100 × 137.1 cm and describes the two works as soon to be available exclusively through Sotheby’s. Release date and time remain TBD. Collectors can enquire now; the listing does not establish a timed sale. Confirm the framed hanging measurements with Sotheby’s before planning an installation.

The classical head becomes a place

The distinguishing feature of Canyons is the way the monumental heads function as terrain. Paths, steps and openings make the foreground ruin appear accessible to the small travellers below. As a visual reading, the work lets the viewer imagine entering the relic, rather than only inspecting its exterior. The weathered head has become an environment with routes through it.

Jungle Sculpture keeps its seated figure more clearly separated from the surrounding vegetation. That adjacent work offers an encounter with a sculptural object; Canyons draws architecture and landscape into the body of the sculpture itself. For a collector interested in Arsham’s overlap of classical imagery and invented spaces, this distinction supplies a stronger reason to select Canyons than its lower edition number alone.

The published size pairs also differ: Jungle Sculpture is listed at 80 × 113.12 cm. Multiplying each pair gives Canyons about 51.5% more nominal rectangular area. That calculation does not establish printed image area or final framed hanging dimensions, and the dimension order is not used here to assign height and width. For a two-work installation, ask Sotheby’s for the outer framed measurements rather than treating the editions as matching-size pendants.

What the price and backplate establish

Canyons is US $2,000 above Jungle Sculpture’s US $7,500 asking price, while the stated numbered edition falls from 50 to 25. Both specify Hi-Rnd printing on paper and black aluminium framing. The premium therefore accompanies differences in image, dimensions and edition size; the specifications do not document an additional production technique unique to Canyons. These asking prices also establish no secondary-market result.

The backplate becomes useful when documenting the exact title and edition number. Perrotin’s Cold Waterfall (2026), another textured Arsham landscape, has 199 numbered copies plus three artist’s proofs and a signed, numbered metal certificate. Canyons’ 25-copy denominator belongs with its own title and backplate description. A general label such as “signed Arsham textured print” leaves those objects insufficiently distinguished. For Canyons, retain photographs of the complete framed work and its numbered backplate alongside the seller’s paperwork.