15 Jun 2012
New Zealand artist Simon Denny has been awarded the Baloise Art Prize for his work ‘Channel Document’ at Art 43 Basel in Switzerland.
The $NZ40,500 prize, awarded by a jury of international experts, includes the acquisition of his work by Baloise who will then arrange for its donation to one of two major museums in Europe: the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg or the MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna.
In his award-winning work, Denny investigates the changing role of media and television in an age of rapid technological progress. His large-scale installation ‘Channel Document’ specifically addresses the short-lived existence of the television channel TVNZ 7 and the recent redesign of our nation’s passport.
For his presentation at Art 43 Basel, the artist commissioned former TVNZ 7 journalist Simon Pound to create a short documentary investigating the 2009 redesign and subsequent roll out of the new New Zealand passport. This video marks the end of a time-line which wraps around the walls of the exhibition space, depicting key moments in the channel’s history.
Denny graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2004 and more recently from Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt am Main in 2009. He is currently based in Berlin and has had several solo exhibitions in Europe and the United States as well as here in New Zealand. He has participated in the Sydney Biennale, the Brussels Biennial and numerous group exhibitions in Europe. Denny is one of the nominated artists for the 2012 Walters Prize and last month was one of three artists awarded the international 2012/13 Ars Viva Prize for Visual Arts.
'Channel Document' was presented at Art 43 Basel by Michael Lett Gallery with the support of an Arts Grant from Creative New Zealand.
For more information, go to:
http://www.michaellett.com/news/
http://www.michaellett.com/img/Basel_Denny_Press_Release_2012_final_1.pdf
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