From 12th December to 1st March Milan’s Banquet Gallery presents DAN, Carlo Zanni’s first exhibition at the gallery. The show features Zanni's latest works—paintings, sculptures, and an Internet performance—that explore the intersections of consumerism, anxiety, emojis, and identity against the backdrop of a 'forever war' scenario.

Zanni’s ongoing series ‘Check-Out Paintings’ are abstract works that navigate the psychological limbo of purchasing, capturing the fleeting yet compulsive emotions tied to eCommerce as a platform for engagement with the world. They are contemplative explorations of anxiety, desire, and our awareness of the world as we book, like, swipe, ship, zoom, or return. These canvases establish a dialogue involving digital culture and traditional artistic approaches, building on the legacy of On Kawara's temporal explorations and Agnes Martin’s minimalist sensibilities. Using a muted palette and integrating visual elements like emojis and Japanese emoticons as clickbaits, these paintings compel the viewer to engage more intimately, ultimately revealing unexpected content.

In the lower gallery, in a dimly lit environment, the title work ‘DAN’ is exhibited for the first time. It comprises laser-engraved MDF boxes featuring distorted and misspelled Amazon Prime logos. These distortions were created using an early, imperfect version of DALL-E, the text-to-image AI software now integrated into ChatGPT. DAN stands for "Do Anything Now," referencing a command line that once allowed users to hack ChatGPT, bypassing its built-in ethical and moral safeguards. These minimalist boxes invite viewers to engage in a symbolic process of unboxing and self-reflection. As viewers' eyes adjust to the low light, hidden forms gradually begin to emerge.

Completing the exhibition is the Internet performance ‘My Shameful Sweet Spot Between Distress and Hilarity’ a live, evolving digital piece that explores the fragile interplay of beauty, humour, and the absurdity of our lives. By using a bot that queries a fashion website with current news from Al Jazeera, the work transforms consumer culture into a dynamic meditation on human longings and vulnerabilities. This echoes Slavoj Žižek's concept of "Unknown Knowns"—those beliefs, values, and ideologies that lie beneath our awareness and significantly shape the way we perceive the world and act within it.

Zanni's works in ‘DAN’ continue his conceptual practice by seamlessly blending technology, social commentary, and traditional techniques into a liminal state that evokes an unstable, shifting sense of being.

DAN is on display at Banquet Gallery from 12th December to 1st March. For more information or to schedule a visit, please contact: info@banquetgallery.com