Simon Denny

Biography

1982 Born, Auckland, New Zealand

Simon Denny's practice emphasizes relationships within communities of things; complex sculptural combinations of objects and images found, bought, gathered and made. Denny's approach is holistic, seeking and building upon analogous connections between the various formal and conceptual aspects of his work.

Typically, Denny's installations are formed from predetermined fragments then assembled within a given space, which to a significant extent determines the final form and content of the work. The finished work is thus more accurately described as the formal resolution of Denny's working process, of sensing and facilitating interconnections between composite elements and the ideas they can contribute to a larger project.

Denny presents his audiences with situations that tend to foreground an engagement with associations of form, purpose and action. Constructions of everyday materials are combined with - and are often comprised of - domestic ready-mades and found imagery. His apparent crude modesty of form belies the poetic intelligence of the works coming-to-be and sculptural conceits. Denny's art-making is rooted in consumption and presentation; considerations of performance and moments of recapitulation which embed the artist's activity in his material - objects and images chosen in the first instance for the character and activity they already inhabit.

Denny has had an active interest in artist-run initiatives in Auckland including Special Gallery (2003-2006) and as a founding member of Gambia Castle (2007 - ).

Simon Denny currently lives and works in Auckland and Frankfurt am Main.

Education

2004

• BFA, Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, New Zealand 

2007

• Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (prof. Willem De Rooij)

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2008

• Recent Haircuts, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
• Simon Denny, Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand 
• Recent Haircuts, Gambia Castle, Auckland, New Zealand 
• Liste Young Art Fair, Michael Lett stand, Basel, Switzerland 

2007

• Monthly Cowards, Gambia Castle, Auckland, New Zealand 
• Compression Club, Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand
• Paltry Motion, Dunedin Pubic Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand (solo) 

2006

• Old entertainment system, Window, Auckland, New Zealand

• The Natural Order of Tact LISTE 06 Art Fair (solo show) Michael Lett Stand, Basel, Switzerland (solo)
• SCAPE, Art & Industry Biennial, Christchurch New Zealand (solo project)
• News is also on Television, live performance with Tahi Moore, Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand (two person)
• Old Things, Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand

2005

• They Who Would Eat the Fruit Must First Climb the Tree, with Tahi Moore, RM103, Auckland, New Zealand (two person)
• Arranging Sympathies, Volume Series, The Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand (solo)
• A Process of Bewilderment, with Tahi Moore, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand (two person)

• Tahi and Simon find the morning towards the border of bewilderment and begin construction, with Tahi Moore, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (two person)

2004

• Left Di Right, with Tahi Moore, Special Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (two person)
• Ergophobia, Windowspace, with Tahi Moore, Cnr Custom Street and Commerce St, Auckland, New Zealand (two person)

2003

• Die Die Die, George Fraser Gallery, with Tahi Moore, Auckland, New Zealand (two person)

Selected Group Exhibitions

2008

• Biennale Of Sydney, Revolutions: Forms That Turn, MCA, Sydney Australia (Solo Presentation) 
• Menschheit, Mother's Tankstation, Dublin, Ireland 
• Conceptual Painting, Atelier Cardenas Bellanger, Paris, France
• Leftovers, Micamoca Berlin, Berlin, Germnay
• I am a man, Parade with Arto Lindsay, Portikus, MMK and the Stadelshule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany 
• Art LA, Michael Lett Stand, Los Angeles, Unitied States Of America

2007

• Post Mass Audience Age, Hamburg Hfbk Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
• Filaturen, Sies + Höke Galerie, Dusseldorf, Germany (group)
• Domestic Irony, Museion, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Bolzano, Italy 
• The Köln Show 2, European Kunsthalle / Galerie Sprueth Magers, Köln, Germany

• Moment Making, Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand
• Prospect, Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
• Group Show!, Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand

2006

• Break/Construct, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth New Zealand 
• 54321 Performance Projects, with Tahi Moore, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland New Zealand
• Mostly Harmless: performance series, with Tahi Moore, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth New Zealand
• Archiving Fever, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand

2005

• Waikato Art Awards, Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton, New Zealand

• Creative New Zealand recent graduate show, CNZ Offices Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

2004

• Auckland Project, 2nd Auckland Triennial Public/Private Tumatanui/Tumataiti, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand

Selected Bibliography

2007

• Barr, Jim and Mary, "Take Something", Paltry Motion (solo catalogue), Michael Lett and Dunedin Public Art Gallery
• Denny, Simon, "What comes in a box?", Paltry Motion (solo catalogue), Michael Lett and Dunedin Public Art Gallery
• Eggleton, David, "Plastic Fantastic", The New Zealand Listener May 21-27 2007 Vol 208 No 3498
• Hans, Annette, "Simon Denny", The Köln Show 2 (catalogue)
• Laird, Tessa, "New School", The New Zealand Listener, March 10-16 2007 Vol 207 No 3487
• Laird, Tessa, "End of western civilization", The New Zealand Listener, December 30-January 5 2007 Vol 206 No 3477

2006

• Laird, Tessa, "A bigger splash", The New Zealand Listener, June 10-16 2006 Vol 204 No 3448
• Laird, Tessa, "Inorganic collection", The New Zealand Listener, March 18-24 2006 Vol 202 No 3436
• Levinson, David, "Simon Denny, Old entertainment system @ Window", Lumiere
• McIntyre, Sally, "Simon Denny: Old Things", Art Asia Pacific, pg.116, No. 50, Fall 2006
• Moore, Tahi, "Making things old", Catalogue essay accompanying Michael Lett publication Old Things

2005

• Giblin, Tessa, "Staccato" Volume (a Physics Room Publication), Issue #2, September 2005
• Laird, Tessa, "Pest Modernism", New Zealand Listener, pg.46, September 2005
• Denny, Simon, "Special Magazine", Natural Selection #4, insert, 2005
• Lane, Chloe, Natural Selection #5, 2005

Awards and Prizes

2007

• Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Visiting artist program

2004

• Scott Ellery Memorial award, Elam School of fine arts, University of Auckland