Revolutions go away behind artifacts. In the summertime of 2011, a painter named Alex Schaefer arrange an easel on a sidewalk in Van Nuys, California, and commenced portray the Chase Financial institution department throughout the road. In his thoughts, the constructing was on hearth — flames pouring from the home windows, black smoke rising over the palm bushes, the Chase emblem nonetheless legible by way of the warmth. He labored en plein air, the way in which the Impressionists had labored the Seine and the hay fields, besides the topic was a department of the most important financial institution in America three years after it had been bailed out with public cash. A passerby referred to as the police. When the paintings bought on eBay for $25,200 to a German collector, Schaefer did the one logical factor and painted extra.
The artworks gathered in Relics of a Revolution at Bitcoin 2026 hint a lineage of dissent that connects street-level protest to the beginning of Bitcoin itself — a Tokyo sidewalk within the snow with Kolin Burges, a Los Angeles overpass beneath wheat paste with Mear One, a botched police raid in Ohio answered with songs and a flag swimsuit with Afroman. Schaefer’s Banks on Hearth work belong to that very same lineage, and so they arrive with an art-historical pedigree that sharpens the purpose. Artwork critics have drawn the apparent line to Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles County Museum on Hearth (1965–68), the portray that put a cultural establishment up in flames and hung it again on the museum’s personal wall. Schaefer swapped the museum for the financial institution, the oil-crisis period for the bailout period, and took the portray out of the studio and onto the sidewalk in entrance of the constructing itself — a incontrovertible fact that earned him questioning by LAPD officers who needed to know if he was a terrorist planning to comply with by way of on his canvases. “Some would possibly say the banks are the terrorists,” he instructed them. In July 2012 he was arrested outdoors a downtown Chase department for chalking the phrase “Crooks” subsequent to the emblem, and spent twelve hours in jail on a misdemeanor vandalism cost.
Born in Los Angeles in 1969 and educated at ArtCenter Faculty of Design in Pasadena, Schaefer spent eight years as a digital artist — together with on the unique Spyro the Dragon trilogy — earlier than leaving the display for the easel and returning to ArtCenter to show the basics of portray, drawing, and composition. Like Mear One, he spent years understanding of downtown Los Angeles, a neighborhood that functioned as floor zero for a decade of American unrest — Occupy LA camped on the garden of Metropolis Corridor just a few blocks from his studio, the 2012 chalk protests that swept throughout the nation had one in every of their flashpoints outdoors a downtown Chase department, and the realm round fifth and San Julian stayed a visual stress take a look at of each system the bailouts have been alleged to have fastened.
The Banks on Hearth collection started in 2009, within the speedy wake of the monetary collapse itself. “All the issues in America,” he has stated, “to me appear to level to the identical root drawback. Which is: the cash is bullshit.” The Bitcoin group discovered him rapidly, and for apparent causes. The Genesis Block’s embedded Occasions headline — “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” — is identical analysis in textual content that Schaefer was making in oil, on the sidewalk, whereas the constructing nonetheless stood.
I sat down with Alex Schaefer forward of his panel at Bitcoin 2026 to speak about plein air protest, the 2008 crash, the structure of bailouts, and what it means to color a constructing on hearth whereas the constructing continues to be there.
BMAG: Alex, you began the Banks on Hearth collection in 2009 — not in a studio, however on the sidewalk, en plein air, in entrance of the particular buildings. For individuals encountering this work for the primary time, are you able to set the scene? What was occurring within the nation while you first arrange an easel throughout the road from a Chase department, and what made the sidewalk the best place to color it?
Alex: In 2009 I had been (and proceed to take pleasure in) “plein air” portray which implies engaged on location open air straight from life; it’s very a lot related to the French Impressionists and it’s a really satisfying factor to do. Since I used to be dwelling in LA on the time, my favourite motif to color was city panorama and I used to be typically arrange with an easel and artwork provides on the sidewalk so I used to be used to creating artwork in public. Additionally in 2009 I used to be beginning to actually take note of monetary information and commenced a studying course of about it that continues to at the present time. On the time I slowly started to assume that the 2008 FiNaNciAL cRiSiS!!1! and subsequent trillion greenback bailouts weren’t what we have been made to consider. Add to this a buddy telling me a few present referred to as the Keiser Report. Now Max and Stacy, together with all types of stories and data on YouTube, are educating me with wit and perception about what was precisely occurring. I may solely draw one conclusion: This was a criminal offense spree and never solely have been the perpetrators getting away with it, they have been getting paid. Outrageous. AntiAmerican, AntiCapitalist, Anti-Regulation and Order. A pair years later and duly radicalized, I used to be in search of a approach to specific my outrage. I used to be plein air portray loads, particularly with a buddy who lived in Van Nuys. In his neighborhood I noticed this Chase Financial institution that was a Washington Mutual that was a House Financial savings and Mortgage and it was this lovely Millard Sheets designed mid-century trendy constructing. That was the attention chocolate falling into the peanut butter of my thoughts: I’m going to color en plein air this Chase financial institution just like the roof is on hearth. In the future later I took the next picture:
BMAG: There’s an art-historical line that retains getting drawn between your work and Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles County Museum on Hearth — a portray that set a cultural establishment alight after which hung again on the partitions of the establishment itself. You swapped the museum for the financial institution, the oil-crisis period for the bailout period, and took the work out of the studio and onto the sidewalk. While you take a look at that lineage, do you see your self as extending a dialog Ruscha began, or diagnosing one thing he couldn’t have seen but within the Sixties — the particular rot of a monetary system that now runs the tradition that used to run it? Is it Deja Vu once more with the present Center East scenario?
Alex: I feel one thing that the 2 work share is that they have been born out of a way of shock. However totally different in that one is about monetary terrorism and the opposite about lack of institutional illustration for artists. Ruscha painted his piece from 1965 to 1968, which apparently was when the French have been placing large strain on the US greenback by swapping their paper {dollars} for precise gold, which on the time was an unbelievable discount in a rigged market. Everybody was feeling the inflation, I’m certain even Ed Ruscha, from silly overseas and home coverage authorities spending, the French knew why (Vietnam), and a pair years later Nixon closed the gold window, letting unfastened wanton cash creation on a scale by no means imagined. Satirically this turned out to be a profit for the “Capital A” Artwork Market by way of the CIA flooding modern American Artwork public sale homes with money selling this concept of American Exceptionalism; i.e., not solely did America beat you commies to the Moon, our artwork is healthier too (learn: costlier). 1973 was the well-known Bob Scull public sale of his modern artwork assortment that broke all worth information on the time. The sport was on.
BMAG: The LAPD questioned you as a attainable terror suspect whilst you have been portray, and in 2012 you have been arrested for chalking the phrase “Crooks” subsequent to a Chase emblem — twelve hours in jail on a misdemeanor vandalism cost. Mear was censored and practically cancelled. Kolin was instructed by Mt. Gox that if he saved protesting everybody would lose their bitcoin. Afroman had seven deputies with assault rifles kick in his door. What did being handled as a menace by the state educate you concerning the paintings itself — and about what the establishments you have been portray have been truly afraid of?
Alex: The powers that be, the establishments, need the general public to be mad at one another. Image these hierarchy pyramid illustrations and on one stage is “The Public” and above them on the pyramid are layers like Police, the Justice System, Politicians, C-Suite Executives, Banks, Central Banks, Devil and many others. Each layer above The Public over centuries has created methods to exert energy over Us, for all types of causes however primarily as a result of they’re afraid of Us directing the sum of all our anger on the aforementioned higher layers. They use their favourite trick and divide The Public into totally different factions with either side getting their very own customized grievances and scapegoats. Then the mainstream media does its job of winding individuals up on either side and voila: anger and outrage facet to facet and Us towards one another, however none of that directed above. As quickly as somebody in The Public layer begins calling out an injustice in an higher layer, troubles will come to them. Everybody you talked about, Mear, Kolin, Afroman, 1st Modification auditors, tax protestors and many others., all know this. My expertise with this ongoing Burning Banks collection has taught me many issues through the years about artwork, the artwork world, the monetary world, Reality, Justice, the American Method and many others. Nice issues, scary issues, profound issues… However the very first thing it taught me is the ability of spectacle and that when the spirit strikes you powerfully to do one thing, though it may appear a little bit bizarre or scary you gotta go along with it.
BMAG: You’ve stated, plainly, that “the cash is bullshit” — that each one the disconnected issues in America level again to the identical root. How did you arrive at that analysis, and while you first encountered bitcoin, did it really feel like affirmation of one thing you’d already been portray, or like a distinct sort of reply to the identical query?
Alex: I feel I’d extra precisely say that “fiat” cash aka foreign money aka the federal reserve observe, is bullshit. Fiat foreign money was invented centuries in the past to wage conflict and the US PetroDollar isn’t any totally different. Infinite conflict, wars of aggression, the Struggle on medicine, the Struggle on most cancers… you identify it there’s a conflict happening both for or in opposition to it and on the finish of the day it’s all funded by the Federal Reserve. Each horrible concept put forth by our so-called leaders will get funded. It’s true: “The love of cash is the foundation of all evil’ however within the case of the US Greenback, it’s truly the cash itself not simply the love of it. The way in which that it’s created out of skinny air and the implications of that basically reveals nothing however utter disregard and disrespect for the worth of human life and human labor. Regardless of that, civilization wants “cash”. Good cash that’s. The social assemble that’s cash is older than capitalism, it’s frankly as previous as society itself and is the means for advanced and specialised societies to type, develop and flourish. For millennia that operate was fulfilled by gold and silver, they possess the classical qualities of Sound Cash in that they’re scarce, fungible, transportable, divisible, sturdy, a unit of measurement and medium for change. When you settle for this as a truth, you then study bitcoin, it slowly then out of the blue dawns on an individual that it’s the biggest type that the idea of Cash has ever taken. And you then begin to actually assume that if we are able to repair the cash, we really can repair the world! Defund Evil!
BMAG: This exhibition known as Relics of a Revolution, and it places your work in dialog with Kolin’s Mt. Gox protest signal, Mear’s Occupy-era murals and wheatpaste protest posters, and Afroman’s flag swimsuit — alongside an authentic copy of The Occasions from January 3, 2009, the newspaper Satoshi encoded into the Genesis Block. The greenback invoice works you’re exhibiting right here take a distinct path to the identical thesis. What would you like somebody strolling by way of this exhibition to remove — particularly somebody who is aware of bitcoin as a worth ticker however has by no means considered it because the continuation of a battle that artists, cypherpunks, and protestors have been in for many years?
Alex: Truthfully, as with all my work, I would like individuals to be visually struck by one thing at the beginning… Whether or not it’s the paint floor, the colour, the distinction, the impact of sunshine, the imagery, simply be fascinating to the eyes first, then the thoughts. I discover the low decision pixelated high quality of the Devaluation collection items to be fascinating to have a look at. There may be an fascinating interaction occurring between the attention and thoughts of the viewer; the portray is full however additionally it is “accomplished” within the viewer’s thoughts. The viewer provides extra to the picture by the use of their creativeness than is definitely visually imparted by the portray itself. “Am I seeing what I feel I’m seeing?” Then one would possibly query the subject material and the way it’s depicted with the idea of Devaluation. At what level can the portray change into so pixelated which you could’t even make it out for what it’s anymore? Identical to at what level can the Greenback change into so watered down and prolonged and pretended that it fully loses its “Tinkerbell Impact” and ceases to carry out it’s essential operate across the World. We might discover out.
That is Half IV of the Relics of a Revolution interview collection accompanying the Relics of a Revolution exhibition. Half I options Kolin Burges, Half II Mear One, Half III Afroman.
Repair the cash. Repair the world.
Clear and minimal: Schaefer will exhibit paintings on view at Bitcoin 2026, April 27–29, at The Venetian Resort, Las Vegas, and can seem on a talking panel moderated by Dennis Koch titled “Taking a look at Bitcoin Artwork By a Protest Lens” alongside Kolin Burges and Mear One. Bid on Schaefer’s work HERE.
The Bitcoin Museum & Artwork Gallery (BMAG) is the curatorial and cultural programming division of BTC Inc and the Bitcoin Convention. Since 2019, the BMAG convention artwork gallery has facilitated greater than 120 BTC in artwork and collectible gross sales. Be taught extra about BMAG at museum.b.tc. Observe BMAG on twitter @BMAG_HQ.
Bundle your Bitcoin 2026 pass with a stay at The Venetian and get your fourth night time free. Use code AFTERS for a free After Hours Move, or get your pass alone here.
