Informaton | Brandon A. Dalmer

Education

2019 - Present Concordia University, Montreal, QC, MFA
2007 Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, AB, BFA

Solo Exhibitions // Project Spaces

2018 At The End of The Day, This Month Only, Toronto, ON
2017 Persistence of Vision, Latitude 53, Edmonton, AB
2017 [1318] NARINA , Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON
2013 Crisium, Untitled Art Society, Calgary, AB
2011 Libration, Haight Gallery, Calgary, AB
2011 Too Drunk To Fuck, Latitude 53, Edmonton, AB

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018 VIDEOMANCY: Alien Autopsy, Ed Video, Guelph, ON
2018 Made in Paint, Golden Artist Colors, New Berlin, NY
2017 DRIVE THRU, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON
2017 – 2018 ReWired: Art x Bissell, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
2015 Once Removed, Interaccess Gallery, Toronto, ON
2015 Powerball: Excess, Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, ON
2014 Homer's Odyssey: A Simpson's Art Show, Videofag, Toronto, ON
2013 Garage Montage, The Art Gallery of Calgary, Calgary, AB
2012 Ghost Hole IV, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto, ON
2012 Spacestation: Bromantica, 809, Calgary, AB
2012 539 Days, Haight Gallery, Calgary, AB
2011 /BIZARRE PIZZAZZ BAZAAR, Stride Gallery, Calgary, AB
2011 Return to the Dollhouse, Truck Gallery, Calgary, AB
2011 Cult of the Contemporary, Xpace Cultural Center, Toronto, ON
2009 Get it on paper!, Summit Gallery, Calgary, AB
2009 Ghost Hole, The Whitehouse Studio Project, Toronto, ON
2009 Impulse Equation, Switch Contemporary, Toronto, ON
2009 HURRAH!, 809 Gallery, Calgary, AB

Selected Screenings

2017 DRIVE-IN: Film Screening, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON
2016 Drake TV Programme: Spring 2016, The Drake Hotel, Toronto, ON
2015 Wreck City: An Epilogue for 809 [dir. Ramin Eshraghi-Yasdi], Calgary Underground Film Festival, Calgary, AB

Artist Talks

2017 Objects of Creation, Latitude 53, Edmonton, AB
2015 Once Removed Panel Discussion, Interaccess Gallery, Toronto, ON
2013 Garage Montage Panel Discussion, The Art Gallery of Calgary, Calgary, AB

Curatorial Projects

2018 Curator, WRECK CITY: RESIDENCY, Calgary, AB
2015 Curator, Once Removed, Interaccess Gallery, Toronto, ON
2015 Co-Curator, WRECK CITY Presents: DEMO TAPE, Penguin Car Wash, Calgary, AB
2013 Co-Curator, WRECK CITY: an epilogue for 809, Sunnyside Community, Calgary, AB
2012 Co-Curator, Ghost Hole IV, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto, ON

Grants and Awards

2017 Canada 150 Grant [Wreck City], Canada Council for the Arts
2015 Project Grant for Organizations [Wreck City], Canada Council for the Arts
2013 Awesome Foundation Grant, The Awesome Foundation
2012 Calgary 2012 Project Grant, Calgary 2012
2011 OAC Exhibition Assistance Grant, Ontario Arts Council

Residencies

2019 Winter BAiR, The Banff Centre, Banff, AB
2017 Golden Foundation Residency, Golden Artist Colors Inc., New Berlin, NY
2016 The Drake Residency, Drake Devonshire Inn, Wellington, ON
2016 Silence Awareness Existence, Arteles Center, Haukijärvi, Finland
2015 Studio Residency, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto, ON

Professional Experience

2017 – Present Co-Editor, DARK MATTER, Toronto, ON
2016 Class Assistant, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
2014 – 2015 Member, Board of Directors, 811 Gallery, Toronto, ON
2013 – 2018, Board of Directors, The Roundtable Residency, Toronto, ON
2013 – Present Coordinator/Organizer, Wreck City Collective, Calgary, AB
2013 Developer, My Virtual Dream, Scotiabank: Nuit Blanche, Toronto, ON
2010 – 2012 Member, Board of Directors, The Whitehouse Studio Project, Toronto, ON
2007 – 2013 Member, Board of Directors, 809 Gallery, Calgary, AB
2007 – 2008 Vice President, Board of Directors, The New Gallery, Calgary AB

Brandon A. Dalmer

Scan.Hack.Process

“To hack is to abstract. To abstract is to produce the plane upon which different things may enter into relation…whether in the technical, culture or scientific realm.*”

Brandon Dalmer’s work at first appearance stands up to the criteria of what painting is: it exists on a planar surface, it alludes to three-dimensionality, it shows a mark, a trace of the author of the work, it recognizes its frame. However, there are cyphers left, a key to another layer of meaning, a conceptual framework, invisible collaborations and labour. The works are not what they at first seem, these are not the paintings you are looking for—these manifestations are within a system of change rather than inertia. In a process of collaboration with code-changing and software, a malleability of content is formed, where the artist allows for the work to iterate and abstract, to become something more than the output medium, and in doing so Dalmer himself iterates and abstracts himself as the artist—part of a matrix of production or plane of internal relations and factors that make the works manifest.

What then are the “source” codes to Dalmer’s work? I wonder about DIY technologies, OSL and open source codes, instructional videos by bro types on YouTube, garage science projects, SETI, NASA scans and imaging of space. The work alludes to these as origin points, serving as guiding constellations in the stellar cartography of the artist. He scans/translates with these sources, and with democratizing technologies to make otherwise invisible worlds seen, translating the virtual into a set of possibilities—hacking.

I quoted McKenzie Wark’s “Hacker’s Manifesto 2.0.” not as some clever epitaph but as a provocation that is within Dalmer’s work—look outside of the dark mirror of techno-pessimism towards a prism of potential futurities.

--Morris Fox

*Mckenzie Wark, Hacker’s Manifesto 2.0