BMAG (Museum & Art Gallery) is a permanent cultural institution that focuses on art, research, and long-term cultural work that is growing around Bitcoin. BMAG is situated in Nashville and combines years of global conference-based art programming into an institutional format that focuses on long-term exhibitions, artist residencies, grants, collecting, and research into how stable monetary systems affect long-term creative and cultural creation.
focuses Dennis Koch is the Director and Curator of BMAG. He has enabled the Bitcoin Conference Art Gallery to become a working cultural economy by pricing all works in bitcoin and coordinating around 120 BTC in art transactions (about $5–6 million USD) since 2019. BMAG takes that idea and turns it into a permanent museum platform that focuses on stewardship, experimentation, and institutional continuity.
Inaugural exhibition sets curatorial direction
Memetica Mysterica, a solo show by modern painter Ksenia Buridanova, is the first exhibition at BMAG this January. The exhibition is the first time that BMAG has made its curatorial criteria clear. The exhibition seamlessly blends ancient techniques with contemporary iconography, setting the tone for the institution from its inception.
Buridanova’s work looks at how photos that start out online change when they are taken out of their original speed and setting. Her oil and canvas paintings take familiar internet images and turn them into things that people want to look at for a long time. They balance technical skill with cultural exploration.
Koch remarked, Bitcoin doesn’t make culture on purpose. But it changes everything it touches, just like the sun. The bright surfaces of Buridanova’s paintings reflect this indirect effect, forming a perfect shape for BMAG’s debut show.
Expanding programs and long-term cultural infrastructure
BMAG’s also opening marks the start of its larger institutional goal. The group will start taking applications for the following things later this month:
BMAG will be a shared cultural platform within BTC Inc. that supports long-term exhibitions, research projects (including new fields like AI), and new creative work shown at conferences around the world.
It will also keep an institutional voice based on craft, history, and stewardship. Memetica Mysterica is the start of BMAG’s year-round programming and a unique chance to buy original works by Buridanova.