At Large with Scott Norton #13: Gabe Whaley - Making MSCHF
A decade ago, Gabe Whaley figured out how to light the internet ablaze and has been leading a relentless scorched earth campaign ever since.
Gabe is CEO and co-founder of MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based high-output for-profit art collective behind hundreds of radical and delightful projects. These range from shoes filled with holy water, to anime tax software, to forged picassos, to the mega-viral Big Red Boots. He’s been dragged into court for ticking off big companies, sold a laptop full of viruses for over one million dollars, and gotten MSCHF represented by Perrotin, a leading global contemporary art gallery.
Softspoken and understated, Gabe has an unlikely history for a provocateur. He grew up in rural North Carolina, insulated from popular culture, and attended West Point where he learned military discipline before dropping out. After working dead-end jobs back home, he flew up to New York City wearing an ill-fitting suit for a long shot interview with Buzzfeed, where he landed a job working on viral content. Then once his extracurricular MSCHF projects took off, it launched as an undefinable N-of-one company with both adoring fans and corporate nemeses around the world.
In this interview, we’ll hear the backstory of some of the collective’s most radical works, how he leads a team with world class ideas and execution, and how creativity and commerce coexist amidst explosive growth for MSCHF.
If you do not know MSCHF today, prepare to have your mind cracked open – and prepare to start seeing them everywhere.
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"Creativity is a shared international language"
Website Show Notes:
- MSCHF https://www.instagram.com/mschf/?hl=en
- Sink of Theseus https://www.perrotin.com/artists/mschf/1181/mets-sink-of-theseus/73733
- Tax Heaven 3000 https://taxheaven3000.com/
- Marcel Duchamp - "Fountain" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)
- MSCHF Perrotin Art 2 - https://leaflet.perrotin.com/view/751/art-2
- Art Basel Miami Beach https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/251364524/art-basel-miami-beach/
- Leaderboard ATM https://www.instagram.com/mschf/p/ClrA9dRulbA/?img_index=1
- Colette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colette_(boutique)
- Deal Sleds https://transacted.io/best-deal-sleds/
- Big Red Boots https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/mschf-big-red-boots-explained-1234656780/
- NOTHING IS SACRED - MSCHF retrospective at Daelim Museum https://hypebeast.com/2023/10/mschf-nothing-is-sacred-daelim-museum-retrospective
- Magazine B https://en.magazine-b.com/
- US Military Academy West Point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Military_Academy
- Maurizio Cattelan - Comedian (Banana) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/08/arts/design/a-critics-defense-of-cattelan-banana-.html
- Paola Pivi https://www.paolapivi.com/
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