Darren Bader

Installation view, eBay sculpture, Société, Berlin, 2020 — Installation view, *eBay sculpture*, Société, Berlin, 2020

Darren Bader is a conceptual artist working across a broad range of media. He is known for his experiments with language, misattribution, found objects, and chance. With works that have included gestures like selling money, releasing live goats into a gallery, or a sculpture that has its owner buy every item in an eBay seller’s shop, Bader’s practice considers the processes through which we ascribe value to objects and how they become art. “Contemporary art is by its very nature kind of a tenuous proposition and category,” Bader claims, “I always sense these fault lines, and perhaps I’m overly sensitive to it—perhaps paranoid, I don’t know.”

Darren Bader (b. 1978, Bridgeport) lives and works in New York. Selected solo exhibitions include MACRO, Rome; MoMA Ps1, New York; and Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne. He has exhibited work at the 2019 Venice Biennale and 2014 Whitney Biennial, as well as group exhibitions at UCCA, Beijing; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; MOCA, Miami; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; and Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art.

Darren Bader and Li Ming: Mind the Gap

By Art Matters, Hangzhou, 2023

Installation view, Mind the Gap, By Art Matters, 2023 — Installation view, *Mind the Gap*, By Art Matters, 2023

The story of Darren Bader and Li Ming begins with a WeChat group chat created during the pandemic. Based in New York and Hangzhou respectively, the two artists who had never met before were invited to collaborate remotely on an exhibition about dialogue. In the face of such a challenge, they embarked on a prolonged cross-server dialogue with ideas being generated through exchanges about each other’s artistic creations, a working model resembling a ping-pong game. During the exchange of information, their seemingly unrelated works of art started to interconnect and expand according to their shared temporary context. There were times when they mulled over ideas for days or deconstructed the integrity of the narratives within their own works to extract fragments,often finding and forming ineffable resonances. The collaboration authentically reveals their divergent ways of thinking and unique sense of humour highlighting where the broad range of their curiosity about the world intersects. Six sets of mutually referential keywords were distilled from their ideas: animal/metaphor, value/vacuum, coincidence/mistranslation, game/trade, digital/physical, and absurd/fun.

Drawing inspiration from their dialogue, the two artists have constructed a living space called Apartment 401 on the ground floor of BY ART MATTERS where around 70 artworks (I use the word ’around’ as, at the time of publication, the artists are still adding works) created by both artists over the past decade, along with their latest collaborations, are on display. The exhibition attempts to defy the usually solemn atmosphere prevalent in art museums. By linking videos, installations, poetry, performances, AR, games, and even food with various functional areas of an apartment including the entranceway, living room, dining room, bedroom, and bathroom, the environment exudes a homelike quality, as if Darren Bader and Li Ming, though unable to meet each other in person, have both lived in the space in their respective parallel universes. The artwork descriptions also differ from the conventional paradigm of exhibition labels or guides. They are transformed into clues that await exploration along the way, pieces of inspiration that can be picked up and taken away, requests of exchanges and gift-giving, or collaborations among the artists and the audience.

For visitors, going to any exhibition is like being cordially invited as guests to a party where they are unable to meet the host, leaving them communicating with the walls, furniture, or floors not dissimilar to the experience of a cross-server dialogue. Scattered throughout the space it is possible to witness these gaps in communication and comprehension, mirroring the contradictions and rifts that pervade reality. Despite this, wisdom is also present and adaptable in the real world, and it is this that may guide people to find ingenious ways to discover the sincerity and the charm of the exchange.

SUN Man
28 March 2023

fünfdreier

Société, Berlin 2023

Daniel was persistent. His enthusiasm unflagging. He would not be deterred.

He pined/designed to realize amazon.com sculpture @ Wielandstraße 26 as natural sequel to eBay sculpture.*

Yes the two works were co-conceived, but I wanted to leave them to their lives—those their owners give them.

Daniel persisted. (Perhaps he knows I enjoy pleasing as much as I “enjoy” being inflexible.)

So we've come to a happy medium: he gets to enjoy the medium of "instruction-based sculpture," i.e. he gets to follow the instructions himself.

There are** five medium-specific works in this show (tentatively titled fünfdreier). One work is realized here for the first time. Another may yet remain unrealized. Two others have never gone beyond exhibition copy.*** One of these copies won't appear as one here, instructions for the work staying strictly instructional.**** The fifth and/or primal work will be Amazon.com sculpture, which I've never known as non-exhibition-copy (present iteration included), but may exist somewhere as the “real thing”.

Per its title, the show’s related to the number 3. I'm sure I'll have to wait a fair while to understand whether the relation is important—terse ternary, atonal tercet, mere sequence… Till then, here's a quincunxish quintet that may or may not be: tertiary, part-ternate, a “third third” preferred word I’ve been unable to pin-down, 33%…

*Our 2020 inflatables spectacle, also instruction-based.
**Only if you're reading this at the right moment. If not "are", "will be" and/or "have been".
***Industry term.
****At least in the hands of Société or hands they could purposefully instruct to see instructions through.

eBay sculpture

Société, Berlin 2020

The work has its owner buy every item a single eBay seller has for sale.* The owner can then do whatever they’d like with the items, though it’s recommended they keep the items somewhat near them** and keep the group of items in its entirety as long as possible.

*After which it’s probable the seller will start to sell new items. The work’s owner can continue to purchase from this seller.
**At times.

fruits, vegetables; fruit and vegetable salad

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2020

Mends of Scott Friendes

Sadie Coles HQ, London, 2021

I don't know

Société, Berlin 2018

Darren Bader

Solo exhibitions

2023

Innate Value, BLUM Gallery, New York
Mind the Gap, with Li Ming, By Art Matters, Hangzhou
fünfdreier, Société, Berlin
3b, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon
2022

Wonths every few Monce, Sadie Coles HQ, Regent Street viewing room, Kingly Street, London, England
Spring Cleaning / Vernal Post-Hibernal Journal, online/chain
2021

Darren Bader: The American Express Holiday Show, Harkawik, New York NY, USA
Group Show, Dries Van Noten off-site: The Little House, Los Angeles CA, USA
Bootlicker Suite, MACRO — Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome
The Plastic Arts (Life Suffuses, Cells Amused), Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
Mends of Scott Friendes, Sadie Coles HQ, London
2020

I plantain platitudes..., Andrew Kreps Gallery, digital
Fomo Haber, Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles
eBay sculpture, Société, Berlin
2019

Interlude, Galleria Franco Noero, Turin
2018

character limit, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
I don’t know, Société, Berlin
E/either e/Either n/Neither N/neither, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
more or less, Sadie Coles HQ, London
2017

(@mined_oud), Madre, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples
Forest/Trees, Greenspon, New York
2016

such are promises, Sadie Coles HQ, London
2015

rocks and mirrors, Galleria Franco Noero, Turin
Reading Writing Arithmetic, Radio Athènes, Athens
light (and) regret; The World as Will and Representation; Final Fantasy, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne
2014

Egg, Chicago
Darren Bader, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
2013

Heaven and Earth, Blum and Poe, Los Angeles
#I am just living to be dying by your side, Galleria Franco Noero, Turin
2012

New Buildings About Songs and Food, Sadie Coles HQ, London
Where Is a Bicycle’s Vagina (and Other Enquiries), or, Around the Samovar, 1857, Oslo
Images, MoMA PS1, New York
2011

Chad Ochocinco, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
2010

Darren Bader, Alex Zachary, New York
Number[s], Eighth Veil, Los Angeles
2009

New Work, 303 Gallery, New York
Darren Bader, T&Sn’Kreps, New York
2008

Darren Bader, gallery.sora, Tokyo
Nic Cage: A Bridal Tour of Southern California Foundries, 2nd Cannons Publications; Pauline Gallery, Los Angeles
2007

as = poaching the poachers, Rivington Arms, New York
2004

Cat, Rivington Arms, New York

Group exhibitions

2024

Yours Truly, Nahmad Contemporary, New York
THIS ISN’T WHO IT WOULD BE, IF IT WASN’T WHO IT IS, Casey Kaplan, New York
2023

Drawings by Sculptors, Helena Anrather Gallery, New York
2022

Montez Press Radio Art Sale Fundraiser, Kai Matsumiya Gallery, New York
Corridor, Elders Collectief, Kortrijk, Belgium
On the Nature of Things, Andrew Kreps Gallery, organized by AKG and Alex Glauber
The Painter’s New Tools, Nahmad Contemporary, New York, organized by Eleanor Cayre and Dean Kissick
Chambres d’Amis: IKEA, Office Baroque, Antwerp, online
2021

sub/dominium, Château Shatto, Los Angeles CA, USA
It Is What It Is, Chateau Shatto, online
The Going Away Present, Kristina Kite Gallery, Los Angeles
Tales of Manhattan, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Fair Use: What’s Mine is Yours, curated by Alison Gass, Altman Siegel, San Francisco
The Looking Glass, Acute Art w/ The Shed and High Line Art, New York
100 Sculptures, anonymous gallery, New York
BREADCRUMBS, Galerie Nagel Draxler, Cologne
Doomed and Famous: Selections from the Adrian Dannatt Collection, Miguel AbreuGallery, New York
La Boîte-en-Valise, Office Baroque, Antwerp, online
2020

Mirage: Contemporary Art in Augmented Reality, UCCA Beijing, curated by Daniel Birnbaum
Me, Family., Mudam, Luxembourg, online, curated by Francesco Bonami, Emanuela Mazzonis di Pralafera and Luigi Alberto Cippini
4,571 miles, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
Animal Kingdom, Alexander Berggruen, New York, online
Sarah Lehrer Graiwer curates, Gallery Platform LA, online
Focus Group II, Von Ammon Co., Washington, online
Il Lenzuolo Viola, Ermes-Ermes, Vienna
2019

Furniture of Desire, Lie Lay Lain, New York
who knows one, Vistamare, Pescara, Italy, curated by Haim Steinbach
Chairs Beyond Right and Wrong, R & Company, New York, organized by Raquel Cayre
May You Live in Interesting Times, the 58th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, curated by Ralph Rugoff
2018

Fake As More, Simon Lee Gallery, New York, organized by Front Desk Apparatus
Could you visit me in dreams?, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, Galerie Nadia Halgand, Vienna
Stop Making Sense, Transmitter, Brooklyn
Pizza Is God, NRW-Forum, Dusseldorf
Stories of Almost Everyone, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
2017

This Light, Kunstlerhaus Stuttgart
Pompei@Madre. Materia Archelogica, Madre. Museo d’Arte Contemporanee Donna Regina, Naples
Publishing as an Artistic Toolbox: 1989-2017, Kunsthalle Wien
Ripple Effect, Centre for Contemporary Art FUTURA, Prague
(Interlude), Cookie Butcher, Antwerp
Synthetic Divide, ACRUSH, Zurich
Fleming Faloon, Office Baroque, Brussels
Earth Day, Ramekin Crucible, New York
Friend ? ?, Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich
Acordo de confiança, Biblioteca Mario de Andrade, São Paulo, curated by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti
.com/.cn, curated by Klaus Biesenbach and Peter Eleey, K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; chi K11 art museum, Shanghai
LOW, XYZ Collective, Tokyo
Jade Bi, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon, curated by Sara de Chiara
Dreamlands (Screenings), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
2016

Not For Sale, Lovaas Projects, Munich
For Pete’s Sake, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm
Phantasmagoria, The Stolbun Collection, Chicago
An Idle Visitation, AND NOW + Hester + Tomorrow, Santa Fe
Goulding the Lolly, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York
Not My Bridge, Not My Water, Aetopoulos, Athens
Your Memories Are Our Future, ACRUSH, Zurich
Tomorrow is a new day, Yacht Walanka, Monaco, curated by Stefan Tasch
Roman à Clef And/Or The Appetite Of The Chef, Rainbow in Spanish, Los Angeles
Can I Step on It?, Galleria Franco Noero, Turin
In the Making, Luxembourg & Dayan, New York
One, No One and One Hundred Thousand, Kunsthalle Wien
The Coveter, Dickinson Roundell, New York, curated by Alex Glauber
The Calder Prize: 2005-2015, Pace London
Fluidity, Hamburger Kunstverein, Hamburg
2015

Political Populism, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna
The peoples biennial 2015, New York
13th Biennale de Lyon, La vie moderne, curated by Ralph Rugoff
Darren Bader, Liz Magic Laser, Takeshi Murata, A Video Exhibition, Boatos Fine Art, São Paulo
The Daily Show, Bureau, New York
What We Found, Non Objectif Sud, Tulette
Objects, Foods, Rooms, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, curated by Andria Hickey
The Visitors, Governors Island, New York, curated by Tom Eccles and Ruba Katrib
Under the Clouds, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto
Art Unlimited, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland, curated by Gianni Jetzer
Love For Three Oranges, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, curated by Karma
Small Sculpture, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago
The Luluennial: A Slight Gestuary, Lulu, Mexico City
Constructed Culture sounds like Conculture, curated by Samuel Leuenberger, Ellis King, Dublin
2014

In Real Life, Christine Koenig Galerie, Vienna, curated by Luca Lo Pinto
RRBGGGRWW (polysemes), Grand Century, New York, curated by Franklin Melendez
Nuit Américaine, Office Baroque, Brussels
Tragedy + Time, Public Fiction and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Urs Fischer, Sadie Coles HQ, London, curated by Urs Fischer
Art Basel Parcours Basel, Switzerland, curated by Florence Derieux
Little Nassau, Brooklyn, NY, organized by Liam Neff
Never Enough: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Vegetal Passion, Royal Garden 5, online
2013

What we did the following year, Ritter/Zamet, London, curated by Christabel Stewart
ANAMERICANA, DEPART Foundation @ American Academy in Rome, curated by Vincenzo de Bellis
Ground Control to Major Tom, Cookie Butcher, Antwerp
‘Pataphysics, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York
PIZZA TIME!, Marlborough Broome St, New York
Something About a Tree, FLAG Foundation, New York, curated by Linda Yablonsky
Mixed Media Message, Gladstone Gallery, New York, curated by Neville Wakefield
Antigrazioso, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, curated by Luca lo Pinto
Jew York, Untitled, New York
They might well have been remnants of the boat, Calder Foundation, New York
Empire State, Palazzo delle Espozioni, Rome; Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris; curated by Alex Gartenfeld and Sir Norman Rosenthal
This is THIS, Zach Feuer, New York, organized by Isaac Brest
Air de Pied-a-terre, Lisa Cooley, New York, curated by Lisa Cooley and Alan Reid
2012

Funny, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, curated by Heidi Zuckerman Jacobsen
Inside the Banana, Algus Greenspon, New York
Creature From the Blue Lagoon, Martos Gallery, Bridgehampton, organized by Bob Nickas
Untitled (Tea Party), Klosterfelde, Berlin
Home Again, Again, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn
Oh you mean cellophane and all that crap, Calder Foundation, New York
Kathryn Andrews, Darren Bader, Karl Haendel, United Artists Ltd., Marfa
Ten Ten, Jason Alexander, New York
D’Après Giorgio, Casa-Museo Giorgio de Chirico, Rome, curated by Luca Lo Pinto
Blind Cut, Marlborough Gallery, New York, curated by Vera Neykov and Jonah Freeman
2011

Foot To Foot, Regina Gallery, London, curated by Margaret Lee
Art Public, Art Basel: Miami Beach, curated by Christine Y. Kim
The Color of Company, Abrons Art Center, New York, curated by David Everitt Howe
Histoires de votre vie, Office Baroque, Antwerp
Modify, As Needed, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, curated by Ruba Katrib
Touchy Feely, Human Resources, Los Angeles, curated by Peter Harkawik
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials – typically stone such as marble – or metal, glass, or wood. Softer (“plastic”) materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals, Johann König Gallery, Berlin
Untitled group show, Untitled Gallery, New York
Broken Umbrellas, Laurel Gitlen, New York, organized by Christopher Aque
On Forgery, LAXART, Los Angeles, curated by Andrew Berardini and Lesley Moon
2010

Looking Back / The Fifth White Columns Annual, White Columns, New York, curated by Bob Nickas
Which Witch is Which and/or Summertime, White Flag Projects, St. Louis, curated by Ajay Kurian
Salad Days, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, New Yok
Greater New York, PS1 Center for Contemporary Art, New York
Support Group, Cottage Home, Los Angeles, under the auspices of Mateo Tannatt
Group Show: Katie Aliprando, Darren Bader, Matias Faldbakken, Mateo Tannatt, 2nd, Cannons, Los Angeles
The hoax is a hoax or may or may not be again, Galerie Carlos Cardenas, Paris
And So On…, And So On…, And So On…, Harris Lieberman Gallery, New York, curated by Matt Sheridan Smith
with Margaret Lee and Michele Abeles, White Columns, New York
2009

Rob Pruitt’s Flea Market, Tate Modern, London
Performa 09, New York (Cancelled)
Cave Gallery, Detroit, curated by Michael E. Smith
Don’t Perish, Leo Koenig Inc., Projeckte, New York, curated by Jesse Willenbring and Joe Montgomery
To the Left of The Rising Sun, Small A Projects Upstate, Greenwich, NY
Time–Life Part II (Odeon), Taxter & Spengemann, New York, with Ara Dymond and Uri Aran
FAX, The Drawing Center, New York
Odeon, Ritter/Zamet, London, with Ara Dymond and Uri Aran
After Image, Peggy Tan & Antonio Serna’s Space
Taki Ishii Gallery, Armory Show Booth, New York
On From Here, Guild & Greyshkul, New York
Boofthle Booth – Booth : Deux Doox – Hollywood Biennial, Pauline Gallery, Los Angeles
Unfiction, Illinois State University Galleries, curated by Bill Conger
2008

8 ½ x 11 / A4, James Fuentes LLC
The World is All That is The Case, Hudson Franklin, New York, curated by Arthur Ou
Singular Friends: heaving up on one another’s shoulders, Gresham’s Ghost, New York,
organized by Ajay Kurian
To Illustrate and Multiply: An Open Book, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, organized by Lynda Bunting and Lisa Mark
Object Salon, White Space Gallery, London, curated by Emily Speers Mears, et.
Al Iconic Boston BBQ, LaMontagne Gallery, Boston, curated by Jesse Willenbring and Laurel Gitlen
Fair Market, Rental Gallery, New York, curated by Haley Mellin
Abandoned Plot, Brooklyn, NY, curated by Andy Meerow
PRUESSPRESS @ Rental, Rental Gallery, New York
Gaping Hole Found in Universe, Daniel Hug, Los Angeles
Boofthle, Pauline Gallery, Los Angeles
2007

Rob Pruitt’s Flea Market, Frieze Art Fair, London
No Context, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
Overbite/ Underbite, Ritter/Zamet, London
2006

More Songs About Buildings and Food: A Recipe For Downtown, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, organized by Adam Kleinman
GRUPE, GBE@Passerby, New York; Mandrake, Los Angeles, curated by Bonito Bachs
Goodbye To All That, Rivington Arms, New York
2005

The Pumpkin Show, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York
Put It In Your Mouth / I’ll see you on the dark side of the prune, Rivington Arms, New York
2004

Word of Mouth, Dinter Fine Art, New York
Do Something, Floating IP, Manchester
2003

Study, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, curated by Ian Rosen
Mad Little, Mad Little Gallery, New York, curated by David Greenberg
Emergence, Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, curated by Cara Baldwin
2000

Amok Festival of Experimental Film and Video, Brooklyn

CV of Darren Bader for download

Darren Bader

Darren Bader

Solo exhibitions

2023

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Group exhibitions

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2018

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