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Simon Denny - Artists - Petzel Gallery

Simon Denny was born in 1982 in Auckland, New Zealand and now lives and works in Berlin. He makes exhibitions and projects that unpack the stories technologists tell us about the world using a variety of media including installation, sculpture, print, painting, video, and NFTs. Denny studied at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland and at the Städelschule, Frankfurt. He co-founded the artist mentoring program BPA//Berlin Program for Artists and serves as a Professor of Time-Based Media at the HFBK (University of Fine Arts) Hamburg. In 2023, the Kunstverein Hannover and the Frans Masereel Centrum in Kasterlee, Belgium exhibited his Metaverse Landscape paintings.

Denny represented New Zealand at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. Recent solo-exhibitions include: Petzel Gallery, New York (2024); Dunkunsthalle, New York (2024); Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland (2023); Altman Siegel, San Francisco (2023); Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee (2023); Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover (2023); Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, (2022); Gus Fisher Gallery at the University of Auckland, Auckland (2021); K21–Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2020); Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland (2018); OCAT, Shenzhen (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2017); WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels (2016); Serpentine Galleries, London (2015); MoMA PS1, Long Island City (2015); Portikus, Frankfurt (2014); mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2013); and the Kunstverein Munich, Munich (2013). Select group exhibitions include: The Warehouse, Dallas (2024); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2024); HEK (House of Electronic Arts), Basel (2023); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek (2023); The Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, Fort Worth (2023); Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2022); Kunsthalle Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2022); AKG Art Museum, Buffalo (2022); de Young Museum, San Francisco (2021); Athens Biennial, Athens (2021); and Mudam – The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2021). Denny has also curated significant exhibitions about blockchain and art such as Proof of Stake at Kunstverein in Hamburg (2021) and Proof of Work at Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2018).

His works are included in the collections of the Astrup Fearnley Collection, Oslo, Norway; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, New Zealand; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York; Danjuma Collection, Esher, England; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, Florida; Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium; Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; Lewben Art Foundation, Vilius, Lithuania; Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Rubell Museum, Miami, Florida; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and the Zabludowicz Collection, London, United Kingdom.

 Multimedia Double Canvas progression, 2009 Inkjet prints on canvas, metal fittings, pedestals Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf

 Multimedia Double Canvas progression, 2009 Inkjet prints on canvas, metal fittings, pedestals Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf

Formalised Org Chart/ Architectural Model: GCHQ 3 Agile/Holacracy Workspace, 2015, Mixed media installation

Formalised Org Chart/ Architectural Model: GCHQ 3 Agile/Holacracy Workspace, 2015

Mixed media installation
Rubell Museum, Miami

All You Need Is Data – The DLD 2012 Conference REDUX, 2014, Auckland Art Gallery

All You Need Is Data – The DLD 2012 Conference REDUX, 2014, Auckland Art Gallery

Detail of Modded Server-Rack Display with Some Interpretations of David Darchicourt Designs for NSA Defense Intelligence, 2015

Detail of Modded Server-Rack Display with Some Interpretations of David Darchicourt Designs for NSA Defense Intelligence, 2015

Disruptive Berlin, 2014, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin

Disruptive Berlin, 2014, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin

Secret Power, 2005, New Zealand Pavilion at the Biblioteca Nationale Marciana, 56th Venice Biennale

Secret Power, 2005, New Zealand Pavilion at the Biblioteca Nationale Marciana, 56th Venice Biennale

Mine, 2019-2020, Mona, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Australia

Mine, 2019-2020, Mona, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Australia

Formalised Org Chart/ Architectural Model: Zappos 2, 2015

Formalised Org Chart/ Architectural Model: Zappos 2, 2015

Proof of Stake - Technological Claims, 2021, Kunstverein in Hamburg

Proof of Stake - Technological Claims, 2021, Kunstverein in Hamburg

Blockchain Future States, 2016, Petzel, New York

Blockchain Future States, 2016, Petzel, New York

Simon Denny