Arslan excels in creating painting and sculpture that combine clarity of form with a mysterious elusive quality. The often solitary, androgynous subjects presented in his work are the intimate individual, sheathed in the invisible layers that makes each finally unknowable. The work presents the private ritual, the silent moment of the self, not immediately recognizable but somehow familiar.
Both the painting and sculpture capture the gesture of the figure, creating three-dimensional forms dripping with plaster, oil, water, wax or concrete. Partly figurative and partly abstract, his large compositions subtly convey the entirety of the figure even when submerged in a dense chiaroscuro.
Arslan was born in Dagestan, in a remote village near the Caspian Sea, studied at the Moscow College of Art, and moved in 1990 to New York City where he currently resides. Since his immigration, the artist has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States. He has had five solo exhibitions with Dillon Gallery.