Outer Preludes is my (ebullient) response to having a substantial budget* to produce an art-NFT with. First and foremost, it's an earnest take on (digital) collage. Secondly, it's a comment on the peculiar (public) conflation of the categories of Art and NFT. It's also a means of coming to terms with personal/professional frustrations**, aspirations, inspirations, pratfalls, etc. after 15 months of (copious) minting. Written another way: The ambiguities of NFTs Have begged in me ("self-entreaty”) To see if I could find a means Of making sense of in-betweens To ascertain + to essay To annotate a new foray Into 3 letters: a r t Outer Preludes is inarguably a non-autonomous art-NFT, requiring a (modest) degree of persistence from those who would persist. Desktop navigation is recommended. *Thanks to Surfing NFT for the opportunity. **The inability to engineer (or fund engineering of) hybrid smart contracts being my primary frustration.

Darren Bader (b. 1978, Bridgeport, CT, USA), lives and works in New York. Bader’s art touches on a broad range of themes – from the ontological status of the art object to the cultural influence of the internet, from the history of the readymade to the role of language in Conceptual art, from global consumer capitalism to the 21st-century art market, from the divine to the abject. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions in international public and private institutions, including: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (2020); Museo Madre, Naples, Italy (2017); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany (2015); Radio Athènes, Athens, Greece (2015); 1857, Oslo, Norway (2012); MoMA PS1, New York, USA (2012). He has also taken part in many group exhibitions in institutions such as: Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (2020); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA (2018); K11 Art Foundation Pop-up Space, Hong Kong, China (2017); Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany (2016); Kunsthalle Wien, Wien, Austria (2015); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2013); FLAG Foundation, New York, USA (2013); Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy (2013); The Calder Foundation, New York, USA (2012); MoMA PS1, New York, USA (2010); Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA (2008). He has participated in: the 58th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2019); 13th Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France (2015); The Whitney Biennial, New York, USA (2014). In 2013 he was awarded the Calder Prize.