Simon Denny (born 1982, in Auckland) is a contemporary artist based in Berlin. He represented New Zealand at the 2015

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. Since 2018 he is a professor for time based media at the HFBK Hamburg.

Education

Denny studied at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

’s

Elam School of Fine Arts The Elam School of Fine Arts, founded by John Edward Elam, is part of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. Students study degrees in fine art with an emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach. The schoo ...

from 2001 to 2005 and Meisterschule,

Städelschule The Städelschule (), Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, is a tertiary school of art in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It accepts about 20 students each year from 500 applicants, and has a total of approximately 150 students of visual a ...

, Frankfurt am Main from 2007 to 2009.

Career

Denny makes sculptures and installations that take his research into the practices and aesthetics of technology companies and products as their starting point. His subject matter has included the redesign of the New Zealand passport, German technology conferences, and internet entrepreneur

Kim Dotcom Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz; 21 January 1974), also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is a German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur and political activist who resides in Glenorchy, New Zealand. He first rose to fame in Germany in the 1990s ...

. Denny has produced three exhibitions under the title ''The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom'', in which the artist presented replicas and stand-ins for the items seized from Kim Dotcom's home in a raid carried out by New Zealand Police. The exhibition was first presented at Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (mumok) in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 2013, then recreated at Firstsite in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

and the Adam Art Gallery in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

in 2014. In 2015 Denny had his first major American solo museum show, ''The Innovator's Dilemma'' at

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution located in Court Square in the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens, New York City. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, the ...

. In November 2015 his solo exhibition ''Products for Organising'' opened at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Denny is represented by

Galerie Buchholz Galerie Buchholz is an art gallery specializing in international contemporary art with exhibition spaces in Cologne, Berlin and New York City. The gallery was founded in Cologne in 1986 by Daniel Buchholz, and today is run jointly with Christopher ...

. Denny entered into cryptoart in 2021. Denny was also a founding member of the Auckland artist-run gallery Gambia Castle.

Venice Biennale 2015

In 2013 Denny was announced as New Zealand's representative at the 56th Venice Biennale. His ''Secret Power'' installations were staged at the

Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark ( it, italic=no, Biblioteca Marciana, but in historical documents commonly referred to as ) is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositori ...

and the arrivals lounge of the Marco Polo Airport. Based on Denny's research into the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collect ...

's use of imagery, the exhibition in the artist's words examines '“the way the contemporary world is depicted in imagery used by the NSA; and it imagines a possible artistic context for the way that imagery was produced.” In September 2015 New Zealand's national museum,

Te Papa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring f ...

, announced it had acquired four works from the ''Secret Power'' installation for its permanent collection.

Awards and recognition

*2012 finalist in the Walters Prize, New Zealand *2012 Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel for ''Channel Document'' project *2013 selected for the curated exhibition at the 2013 Venice Biennale *2015 represented New Zealand at the 2015 Venice Biennale *2015 recognised as a 'New Generation' artist by the

Arts Foundation of New Zealand 'The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Te Tumu Toi is a New Zealand arts organisation that supports artistic excellence and facilitates private philanthropy through raising funds for the arts and allocating it to New Zealand artists. The concept ...

Exhibitions

*2019 ''Mine'' Museum of Old and New Art Tasmania, Australia *2021 ''Mine'' Petzel Gallery New York *2021 ''Pioneers'' Petzel Gallery at Art Basel OVR *2020 Altman Siegel at Art Basel OVR: Miami Beach *2020 ''Curated Selection: New Painting, Sculpture, and Works on Paper'' Petzel Gallery, New York

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denny, Simon 1982 births Artists from Auckland University of Auckland alumni Living people New Zealand contemporary artists Städelschule alumni