MSCHF Co-Founder Lukas Bentel Departs To Pursue Solo Endeavors

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Lukas Bentel, a co-founder and the founding chief creative officer of the art collective MSCHF, has announced his departure from the group to focus on solo projects. The news was released this week via a formal press statement.

Bentel expressed gratitude for his time with the collective.“I am enormously grateful and proud of the MSCHF team and what we created together, it was an enormous collective effort,” Bentel said.“We moved athletically at MSCHF, but we were designing stories that last. That's where I want to get back to: making art that stays with people long after the moment has passed.”

Since its establishment in 2019, MSCHF gained prominence through numerous viral artworks, often critiquing the art world's excesses. Notable projects include Severed Spots ( 2020 ), where the collective purchased a Damien Hirst“Spot” painting for $30,485, subsequently selling each individual spot for $450. Another was ATM Leaderboard for Art Basel Miami Beach 2022, which displayed visitors' checking account balances on screen, with one participant showing $9.5 million. Bentel explained their approach, stating,“Contemporary art feels increasingly irrelevant because it is siloed in the walls of a gallery or museum. We wanted to make work that was in the world, that was consumed as a product and engaged with culture.”

More recently, MSCHF achieved greater art world recognition, including representation by Perrotin. In 2024, the collective presented three exhibitions with the gallery in Seoul, Los Angeles, and New York. The New York show, titled Met's Sink Of Theseus, involved gradually removing and reassembling parts of a bathroom sink from the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the gallery. According to the press release, Bentel“conceived, designed, created or directed nearly 300 released works at MSCHF spanning sculpture, footwear, fashion, software, publishing, furniture and vehicles.” Other projects included the creation of viral Big Red Boots and the rescue of a two-year-old cow from slaughter. Last year, Phaidon published Made by MSCHF, documenting the group's initial six years.

While Bentel will pursue“solo art projects as well as commissioned design and commercial work,” MSCHF is expected to continue with its remaining members: Daniel Greenberg, Stephen Tetreault, Gabriel Whaley, and Kevin Wiesner. The collective's website currently lists 125 projects, with question marks indicating projects 126 through 135.

Source: ARTnews

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