Our first show as BMAG, featuring new work alongside our private collection.
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Bitcoin Museum & Art Gallery is proud to present Mysterica Memetica, a solo exhibition by Ksenia Buridanova that explores the hidden languages of internet culture through the lens of contemporary painting. Opening in the gallery’s main space, this collection demonstrates why Buridanova has become one of the most compelling artists translating online memetics into contemporary painting.
This exhibition invites visitors to slow down and consider what we have created in our collective digital dreaming. In a world where images move at the speed of thought, Buridanova offers a chance to pause and decode the mysteries embedded in our most viral visions.
Buridanova’s canvases capture the strange alchemy that occurs when ancient visual archetypes collide with the chaotic energy of online communities. Her work asks what happens when sacred iconography meets ironic detachment— when sincerity and absurdity become indistinguishable. The painting Memetica Mysterica serves as a cipher for the exhibition, suggesting that beneath the surface noise of internet humor lies something more profound: a new visual vocabulary for expressing the inexplicable.
"Ksenia is clearly one of the most talented painters of her time. Watching her go down the Bitcoin rabbit hole will be a treat for future generations to enjoy into perpetuity."
– Tommy Marcheschi, Artist In Residence, BMAG
By arresting images designed for rapid circulation, Buridanova changes how they are encountered. Familiar figures take on an unexpected seriousness, inviting prolonged looking and a more measured engagement. The paintings suspend viewers between recognition and reverence, allowing these figures to function more as icons.
Buridanova’s technical skill is immediately evident. Working in the tradition of Dutch Golden Age painters, she uses dramatic lighting and meticulous brushwork to render her subjects with museum-quality precision. But instead of merchants and clergy, her canvases feature Pepe the Frog and other figures born from online communities. The result is striking: meme imagery painted with the same care and attention Rembrandt gave his subjects.
This is not parody or irony. Buridanova treats internet culture as a legitimate source of contemporary iconography, worthy of serious artistic investigation. Her paintings examine how these images function once they are shared, repeated, and absorbed—as symbols that carry meaning across communities and borders.
“There’s a familiar moment of hesitation with work like this—similar to how artists like Mark Ryden were once debated as kitsch. That friction often signals new iconography being taken seriously for the first time. Buridanova brings meme imagery into the slower, more demanding language of classical painting, where it can no longer be dismissed.”
— Dennis Koch
The work Memetica Mysterica exemplifies Buridanova’s approach: a gathering of figures illuminated by warm, atmospheric light, painted with technical excellence that would feel at home in any major museum. The craftsmanship speaks for itself.
“Bitcoin doesn’t produce culture intentionally, but like the sun, it reshapes everything it touches. In the luminous surfaces of Ksenia Buridanova’s paintings, that indirect light becomes visible—giving form to an emergence well suited to BMAG’s first exhibition.”
— Dennis Koch
Ksenia Buridanova is a Russian painter whose work has gained international recognition for its fusion of classical technique and contemporary digital culture. Trained in traditional fine art methods, she applies Old Master painting techniques—including chiaroscuro and detailed oil rendering—to subjects drawn from internet meme culture. Her approach has positioned her at the forefront of a generation of artists redefining what constitutes serious contemporary art.
Buridanova’s work has been collected by prominent figures in the Bitcoin and digital art communities and exhibited internationally. Based between Russia and Europe, she continues to explore the intersection of historical painting traditions and the visual languages emerging from online spaces. Memetica Mysterica represents her most comprehensive exhibition to date, showcasing the technical mastery and conceptual depth that have made her one of the most sought-after artists working at the crossroads of fine art and internet culture.
"Memetica Mysterica" represents a significant moment in the evolution of Bitcoin-era art—work that bridges traditional fine art practice with the visual language of digital native culture. Buridanova's paintings will appeal to collectors who understand that today's Bitcoin art movement represents a meaningful chapter in art history.
Also featured in Mysteria Memetica are (3) Ksenia originals in the collection of David Bailey: Kekius Maximus, Pepeus Flamel, and Pepeordinatus
300 10th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37203
January 3, 2026
Monday – Friday, By appointment only
BMAG staff will give private tours by appointment only, starting January 21, 2026.
For our events schedule, visit the Exhibitions page.
