Simon Denny

Petzel Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition of works by Simon Denny entitled Blockchain Future States, opening Thursday, September 8th.

At a moment when public debate spotlights a global governance system that seems to ignore the needs of many of its participants, starkly contrasting visions for alternative political systems are emerging. What would a world look like where the collusion of an elite few would be rendered technically impossible? Can a truly inclusive global future exist?

Blockchain Future States investigates Ethereum, 21 Inc., and Digital Asset, three financial companies at the forefront of Bitcoin technology and the application of the blockchain, a decentralized transaction database that functions as the backbone of this crypto-currency. The potential widespread usage of Bitcoin as a supra national currency enables these visionaries to propose radically different visions for a new world where traditional political/geographical state formations can be reimagined and new dreams of what the world could look like begin to emerge.

For this exhibition Denny will present three different platforms highlighting the differences in each company’s utilization of blockchain and the political and ideological differences these are based on. Their aesthetic context and geo-political ecosystems are imagined through a global diagram, a community of computer Case-Mods and other sculptural infographics. The exhibition maps the myths, dreams, winners and losers of the global game of governance design. Artworks borrow their forms from the hardware of competitive gaming – with oversized special editions of the board game “Risk”, personal computer cases turned corporate “deal toys” and cartoonish entrepreneurial “players” in a land-grab for the decentralized, encrypted infrastructure of possible self-governing future worlds.

Simon Denny was born in New Zealand in 1982 and received his degree at the Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt. Denny has exhibited widely internationally including WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussles (2016); Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (2015); 56th Venice Biennale (2015); MoMA PS1, New York (2014); Portikus, Frankfurt (2014); Kunstverein Munich; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (mumok), Vienna (2013); 55th Venice Biennale (2013); and the Aspen Art Museum (2012).

Petzel Gallery is located at 456 West 18th Street. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM.

For press inquiries, please contact Janine Latham at janine@petzel.com, or call (212) 680-9467.

Blockchain Future States

456 W 18th Street

September 8 – October 22, 2016

Selected Works

Press Release