Super Dakota is pleased to present Protocol, an exhibition of new work by Canadian/American artist Chris Dorland. For his third exhibition with the gallery, Dorland will present five new abstract paintings on linen as well as two NFT’s minted on the Ethereum blockchain and displayed on monitors in the gallery as well as on the Foundation website. Protocol explores the artist’s longstanding preoccupation with the ways in which technology’s networked omnipresence in all facets of our lives is rendering our ability to distinguish between reality and simulation increasingly difficult.

In computer science, a protocol consists of a set of rules or procedures for transmitting data between electronic devices, such as computers. In order for computers to exchange information, there must be a preexisting agreement as to how the information will be structured and how each side will send and receive it. A similar type of process can be observed with human cognition. While seemingly abstract, Dorland’s new paintings are dense abstractions filled with data and information that allows the viewer to understand the work on representational terms despite the lack of narrative or functional representation. The works themselves operate within the logic and history of painting yet remain technically confounding and appear to be digital artifacts brought to life rather than old fashioned objects painted in an artist’s studio—they are specters of painting’s history in a digital world. The paintings’ visual collapse between what is digital and what is not becomes almost unrecognizable to the eye, rendering them truly hybrid works operating in both the digital and the real world simultaneously. Dorland’s two new video works consist of short explosive looping animations of glitching and corroded datascapes. This will be the first time the artist is exhibiting his NFT works in a gallery setting–further flattening the distinctions between the real world and the digital metaverse.

Chris Dorland (b. Montreal) is a New York based artist working at the intersection between painting and new media. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in numerous collections including the Whitney museum, The Bronx Museum, The Neuberger Museum among others. His work has been exhibited in FRONT INTERNATIONAL: The Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, US; Nicoletti Contemporary, London, UK; Lyles & King, NY. He has exhibited in galleries such as Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, US; Sikkema Jenkins, New York, US; Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, US. He is Director-at-Large at Magenta Plains.