Simon Denny

Selected Works

Video

The future of Art according to Simon Denny

Biography

Born in New Zealand in 1982, Simon Denny lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Denny graduated from the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste (Städelschule) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The work of New Zealand born, Berlin-based artist is driven by the landscape of contemporary media culture. Simon Denny works with installation, sculpture, print and video. He makes exhibitions that unpack the social and political implications of the technology industry and the rise of social media, startup culture, blockchain and cryptocurrency. His work challenges numerous themes entrenched in contemporary society’s globalized culture: the Internet, technological obsolescence, corporate culture, television broadcasting, and national identity. Considering the economic and social implications of recent information technologies, Denny’s research-based projects and exhibitions offer critical insight into the conditions of exchange and the production of knowledge in the digital world. Through a process that renders the immaterial flow of information into visible and tangible objects, Denny’s sculptural installations often approximate the visual language, style, and forms that are integral to the Internet and the culture that surrounds it. Internationally renowned for his vitrine sculptures inspired by cybernetic culture and surveillance policies, Simon Denny explores the materialization and commodification of meanings, experiences and information. Taking inspiration both from miracles and paradoxes of the recently born tech-culture, as well as from the frailty of our consumerist and hyper-realistic era, Denny’s work blur the boundaries that traditionally shape our experience of art, and always imply the viewer’s ability to establish a relation with the art object as an aesthetic and critical tool.

Gallery Exhibitions

Other Venues

Selected Press

11.10.2022
ARTNET
Artist Simon Denny Resurrects Dead Companies From the Dotcom Crash and Imagines How Their Logos Might Look Today
07.07.2022
ART | BASEL
NFTs: an artist’s perspective
31.08.2021
ARTNET
Simon Denny Is Selling an Intentionally Lackluster NFT to Benefit Institutions Crypto Collectors Typically Don’t Care About
01.03.2021
BERLINARTLINK
The Mine as Metaphor: An Inter­view with Simon Denny
25.02.2020
BLOOLOOP
Creating Mine: The technology behind Simon Denny’s innovative exhibition at Mona
06/2019
THE GUARDIAN
From giant board games to Amazon's worker cage: Simon Denny's dark arts
10.05.2019
FREUNDE VON FREUNDEN
Sculptor Simon Denny on the material imprint of our data-driven economy
24.09.2018
FRIEZE
Art Versus Silicon Valley: Are Artists Losing the Conceptual Advantage?
01.03.2018
ARTNET
How Artist Simon Denny Is Turning Board Games Into Hilarious Critiques of Digital Capitalism
11.07.2013
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Digital Dogma, Deconstructed

CV

Education

2009

Meisterschule, Städelschule HFBK, Frankfurt am Main

2005

BFA, Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland

Solo exhibitions

2023

‘Metaverse Landscapes’, Kunstverein Hannover

‘Metaverse Landscapes’, Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee

‘Read, Write, Own’, Altman Siegel, San Francisco

2022

‘Merge’, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, Germany

2021

‘Proof Of Stake: Technological Claims’, curated by Simon Denny, Kunstverein in Hamburg

‘Simon Denny et al.’, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand

‘Simon Denny: Extrator”, Kunstfenster im Haus der deutschen Wirtschaft, Berlin
‘Mine’, Petzel Gallery, Chelsea, New York

2020

‘Mine’, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
‘Simon Denny’, Fine Arts, Sydney
‘Security Through Obscurity’, Altman Siegel, San Francisco

2019

‘Regulation’, T293, Rome
‘Mine’, MONA – Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Australia

2018

‘Games of Decentralized Life’, Galerie Buchholz, Cologne
‘The Founder’s Paradox’, MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland

‘Your North is my South, Museum fur Neue Kunst, Freiburg, Germany

2017

‘The Founder’s Paradox’, Michael Lett, Auckland
‘Shenzhen Entrepreneurial Form’, Fine Arts, Sydney
‘FaaS – Feedback as a Service: Reflecting on messaging, debate and criticality inside a parliamentary discussion on internet governance’, Bozar, Brussels
‘Simon Denny: Real Mass Entrepreneurship’, C2 Space, OCT-LOFT, OCAT Shenzhen
‘Hammer Projects: Simon Denny’, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

2016

‘Secret Power’, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington
‘Blockchain Future States’, Petzel Gallery, New York
‘Business Insider’, WIELS, Brussels

2015

‘Products for Organising’, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London
‘Secret Power’, New Zealand Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale
‘The Innovator’s Dilemma’, MoMA PS1, New York

2014

‘The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom’, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington
‘New Management’, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main
‘The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom’, Firstsite, Colchester
‘TEDxVaduz redux’, T293, Rome
‘Disruptive Berlin’, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin

2013

‘The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom’, mumok, Vienna
‘All You Need is Data – The DLD 2012 Conference REDUX rerun’, Petzel Gallery, New York
‘All You Need is Data – The DLD 2012 Conference REDUX’, Kunstverein München, Germany

2012

‘Full Participation’, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, US
‘Envisaging Vocational Rehabilitation’ (with Joanna Fadyl), Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany

2011

‘Corporate Video Decisions’, Friedrich Petzel Gallery
‘Corporate Video Decisions’, Michael Lett, Auckland
‘Cruise Line’, NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen
‘Chronic Expectation: CFS/ME Documentary Restoration’, T293, Rome
‘7 Unreachable Elevators’, IMO, Copenhagen

2010

‘Negative Headroom: the broadcast signal intrusion incident’, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis
‘Negative Headroom: the broadcast signal intrusion incident’, Halle Für Kunst, Lüneburg, Germany
‘Remote Tutorial: hate poems for travelers’, Landings Project Space, Vestfossen, Norway
‘Introductory logic tutorial video’, Artspace, Sydney

2009

‘Celebrities’ houses at night: a projection’, Standard Oslo, Oslo
‘Starting from behind’, Michael Lett, Auckland
‘Deep Sea Vaudeo’, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne
‘Watching Videos Dry’, T293, Naples
‘7 Drunken Videos‘, Luettgenmeijer, Berlin

2008

‘Aquarium Paintings (with Nick Austin)’, Center, Berlin
‘Ruined by Sheer Confidence’, Caribic Residency, Frankfurt am Main
‘Alexandra Bircken / Simon Denny’, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal, Germany
‘Recent Haircuts’, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne
‘Recent Haircuts’, Gambia Castle, Auckland

2007

‘Compression Club’, Michael Lett, Auckland
‘Monthly Cowards’, Gambia Castle, Auckland
‘Paltry Motion’, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin

2006

‘Old Entertainment System’, Window, Auckland
‘Scape’, Art & Industry Biennial, Christchurch
‘Old Things’, Michael Lett, Auckland

2005

’Arranging Sympathies’, Volume Series, The Physics Room, Christchurch

Group exhibitions

2024

‘Poetics of Encryption’, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin

2023

‘Everything at Once: Postmodernity, 1967-1992’ Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn

‘Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power, 1500-2025’, Fondazione Prada Osservatorio, Milan

‘Exploring the Decentralized Web-Art on the Blockchain’, HeK – House of Electronic Arts, Basel

‘Supersublime’, GIANT, Bournemouth’

‘The Seashore of Endless Worlds’, Le Commun, Geneva

‘World out of Joint: 9 Installations’, Kunst Museum Winterthur

‘Notes From the Ether: From NFTs to AI’, ArtScience Museum, Singapore

‘International Techno Art Exhibition: Are You Working Now?’, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung

‘The Educational Web’, Kunstverein in Hamburg

‘Gödel, Escher, Bach: There is more to art than meets the eye’, West Den Haag

‘Collective Worldbuilding – Art in the Metaverse’, HEK Basel, Münchenstein

‘For What it’s Worth: Value Systems in Art since 1960’, The Warehouse, Dallas

‘Picasso: Untitled’, La Casa Encendida, Madrid

‘Who is Online? Game Art in the Age of Post-NFTism’, HeK – House of Electronic Arts, Basel (online)

‘World as Diagram, Work as Dance’, Emalin, London

‘I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen’, The Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth

‘Schöne Neue Arbeitswelten – Brave New Work’, Galerie Alte Schule Adlershof, Berlin

2022

‘DYOR – Do Your Own Research, Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

‘Post-Capital: Art and the Economics of the Digital Age”, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Cophenhagen, Denmark

‘The Byzantine Generals Problem’, Distant Gallery / Aksioma Institute for Contemporary Ljubljana, online

‘Landscape of Labour’, KAI 10 Arthena Foundation, Dusseldorf, Germany

‘Creation Stories: A Project by Simon Denny and Karamia Mueller”, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand

‘Creation Stories: A Project by Simon Denny and Karamia Mueller’, Michael Lett, Auckland

‘Presentation Layer: NFT forms, platforms and transference’, Ilam Campus Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand

‘Welt aus den Fugen: 9 Installation’, Kunst Museum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
‘INFORMATION (Today)’, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo
‘World of Networks’, Centre Pompidou, Paris
‘Digital Capital NFTs’, curated by Simon Denny with Viola Lukacs, Kunsthalle Berlin Flughafen Tempelhof
‘something new, something old, something desired’, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany

‘Collezione MAXXI: What a Wonderful World’, Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI, Secolo, Rome, Italy
‘Réseaux-Mondes (Worlds of Networks)’, Cente Pompidou, Paris

‘Among the Machines’, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK

‘Beneath the Skin, Between the Machines’, HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China

2021

‘Feeling the Stones’, Ad-Diriyah Biennale
‘A Time to Embrace and to Refrain from Embracing’, 6th Ural Industrial Biennial
‘Post-Capital: Art and the Economics of the Digital Age’, MUDAM, Luxembourg
‘Athens Biennale’, Athens
‘Iskra Delta’, The 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Croatia
‘Proof of Stake’, Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany
‘Don’t be Evil’, UQ Art, Brisbane
‘Hiding in Plain Sight’, Pace Gallery, New York
‘Fair Use: What’s Mine is Yours’, Altman Siegel, San Francisco
‘Heroes and Sheroes’, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
‘Information (Today)’, Kunsthalle Basel
‘THE DREAMERS’, Belgrade Biennale, Serbia
‘Burning Speech’, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin
‘Aquaria – Or the Illusion of a Boxed Sea’, MAAT, Lisbon
‘Beyond States. Über die Grenzen von Staatlichkeit’, Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen, Germany

2020

‘Remedy for the Doldrums’, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne
‘We never sleep’, Shirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
‘Studio Berlin’, Boros Collection at Berghain, Berlin
‘Uncanny Valley. Being Human in the Age of AI’, de Young Museum, San Francisco
‘We Never Sleep’, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt

2019

‘Circular Flow. On the economy of inequality’ Kunstmuseum, Basel
‘Meatware’, Sumer Contemporary Art, Tauranga, New Zealand
‘The Invisible Hand’, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney
‘VIENNA BIENNALE FOR CHANGE: BRAVE NEW VIRTUES. Shaping Our Digital World’, MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art
‘Face with Tears of Joy’, Blitz, Valletta, Malta
‘Tomorrow is the Question’, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark

2018

12th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea
‘Primary Care’, University of Otago Library, Dunedin, New Zealand
‘Hybrids’, Lustwarande, Tilburg, Netherlands
‘I Was Raised on the Internet’, MCA Chicago, Chicago
‘The Mediated Image’, Altman Siegel, San Francisco
‘Hello World—For the Post-Human Age’, Art Tower Mito (ATM), Mito, Japan
‘TITLE II’, Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran, Montreal
‘Your North is My South’, Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg, Germany
‘Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today’, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

2017

‘Still Human’, Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation, Miami
‘Open Codes. Living in Digital Worlds’, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany

‘University of Disasters’, Bortolami Gallery, New York
‘Please Come Back. Il mondo come prigione?’, MAXXI, Rome

2016

‘New world order’, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Liverpool
‘HACK SPACE’, K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai
‘Working Worlds’, Manifesta 11, Zurich
‘… ma l’amor mio non muore. Opere dalla Collezione Alloggia’, Casa Museo Ivan Bruschi, Arezzo, Italy
‘Blockchain Visionaries’, 9th Berlin Biennale
‘HACK SPACE’, K11 Art Foundation, Honk Kong
‘TeleGen. Art and Television’, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
‘Fluidity’, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany
‘Emotional Supply Chains’, Zabludowicz Collection, London

2015

‘Networked Encounters Offline’, Lewben Art Foundation, 10th Kaunas Biennial, Lithuania
‘Toys Redux — On Play and Critique’, Migros Museum, Zurich
‘The Darknet – From Memes to Onionland. An Exploration’, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Switzerland
‘Political Populism’, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna
6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Russia
‘After Babel’, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
‘La vie moderne’, 13e Biennale de Lyon

2014

‘La Biennale de Montréal’, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Canada
‘Smart New World’, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf
‘THE GO-BETWEEN. A selection of emerging international artists from the Ernesto Esposito Collection, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples
‘To the End of the Line’, Château Shatto, Los Angeles
‘Europe, Europe’, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo
‘Art Post-Internet’, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

2013

‘Time Machine’, M-ARCO Foundation, Marseille
‘Simon Denny – Matthias Sohr’, WallRiss, Fribourg, Germany
‘Speculations on Anonymous Materials’, Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
‘Liquid Autist’, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin
‘Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst ’, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
‘ars viva-Preis 2012/13 – Systeme’, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
‘The Encyclopedic Palace’, 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice
‘BERLIN.STATUS [2]’, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
‘Image into Sculpture’, Centre Pompidou, Paris
‘I knOw yoU’, IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
‘Version Control’, Arnolfini, Bristol, United Kingdom
‘ars viva-Preis 2012/13 – Systeme’, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany

2012

‘Shell-Reflexive’, Bas Fisher Invitational, Miami
‘ars viva-Preis 2012/13 – Systeme’, Neues Museum, Nürnberg, Germany
‘How To Eclipse The Light’, Wilkinson Gallery, London
‘Remote Control’, ICA, London

2011

‘Based in Berlin’ , KW – Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
‘Collecting Contemporary’, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington
‘Dystopia’ CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France
‘That’s the way we do it’, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria

2010

‘Various Transmitters’, Renwick Gallery, New York
‘The Smart Frrridge. Chilly Forecast for Internet Fridge’, Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz, Austria
‘Trailer Park’, Teatro Margherita, Bari, Italy
‘More Pricks than Kicks’, David Roberts Art Foundation, London
‘Forbidden Love : Art in the Wake of Television Camp’, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln
‘The Luminous West’, Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany
‘Permanent Mimesis. An Exhibition on Realism and Simulation’, GAM Underground Project, Turin
‘Re-Dressing’, Bortolami Gallery, New York
‘Let us compare Mythologies’, Witte de With, Rotterdam
‘Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line’, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö
‘Vuelo fuera del tiempo’, Museo de la Ciudad de México, Cuauhtémoc
‘The Perpetual Dialogue’, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York

2009

‘Display with Sound’, International Project Space, Birmingham
‘Quodlibet II‘, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne

2008

‘Show me don’t tell me’ (Witte de With curated section), Brussels Biennial 1, Brussels
‘Brick Lane79a’, London
‘The Gentle Art of Collapsing the expanded Fields’, Atelier Cardenas Bellanger, Paris
‘Noli me Legere’, Michael Lett, Auckland
‘Alexandra Bircken / Simon Denny’, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal, Germany
‘Revolutions: Forms that Turn’, Biennale Of Sydney, MCA, Sydney
‘Menschheit’, Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin
‘Leftovers’, Micamoca Berlin, Berlin
‘Destruction’ in ‘I am a man’, Parade by Arto Lindsay, Portikus, MMK / Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main

2007

‘Post Mass Audience Age’, Hamburg Hfbk Gallery, Hamburg
‘Filaturen’, Sies + Höke Galerie, Dusseldorf
‘Domestic Irony’, Museion, Museum Of Modern And Contemporary Art, Bolzano
’The Köln Show 2‘, European Kunsthalle / Galerie Sprueth Magers, Cologne
‘Moment Making’, Artspace, Auckland
‘Prospect’, Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington
‘Group Show!’, Michael Lett, Auckland

2006

‘Break / Construct’, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
‘54321 Performance Projects’ (with Tahi Moore), Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
‘Mostly Harmless: Performance Series’ (with Tahi Moore), Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
‘Archiving Fever’, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington
‘Scape’, Art & Industry Biennial, Christchurch
‘News Is Also On Television’ (Live Performance with Tahi Moore), Michael Lett, Auckland

2005

‘They Who Would Eat The Fruit Must First Climb The Tree’, (with Tahi Moore), Rm103, Auckland
‘Waikato Art Awards’, Waikato Museum Of Art And History, Hamilton
‘A Process Of Bewilderment’ (with Tahi Moore), Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington
‘Creative New Zealand Recent Graduate Show’, Cnz Offices Auckland, Auckland
‘Tahi And Simon Find The Morning Towards The Border Of Bewilderment And Begin Construction’ (with Tahi Moore), George Fraser Gallery, Auckland

2004

‘Left Di Right’ (with Tahi Moore), Special Gallery, Auckland
‘Auckland Project’, 2nd Auckland Triennial, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland
‘Ergophobia’, Windowspace (With Tahi Moore), cnr Custom Street And Commerce St, Auckland

2003

‘Die Duie Die’ (with Tahi Moore), George Fraser Gallery, Auckland