A 2025 self-portrait of some of the members of Mschf with various artworks.
Photo: Courtesy of MSCHF
Creative Mind: Mschf
The Brooklyn collective have experienced a meteoric rise with their clever, irreverent projects that turned into viral sensations
For Mschf, humor is serious business. The Brooklyn collective has been causing viral sensations over the years with its clever, irreverent projects that use weaponized absurdity to critique our capitalist society. Founded in 2016 by friends Lukas Bentel, Kevin Wiesner, Gabriel Whaley, and Stephen Tetreault, Mschf began as a series of buzzy releases that dropped every two weeks.
Now they are a team of about 25 people with millions of online followers and a roster of major brand collaborations and art gallery exhibitions. This spring, a new book with Phaidon illuminates the behind-the-scenes workings of the provocateurs.
Mschf's Global Supply Chain Telephone, a surrealist mash-up of luxury fashion bags. Photo: Courtesy of MSCHF
ATM Leaderboard (2022). Photo: Courtesy of MSCHF and Perrotin
Group think: “Mschf the entity is the author of all its works, and we describe it as a collective because the entire team, regardless of specialty, comes up with hundreds, if not thousands, of ideas. It is the skeleton on which the rest of our operation is built,” says Wiesner.
"MSCHF: Nothing is Sacred" at the Daelim Museum. Photo: Courtesy of MSCHF and the Daelim Museum
Best in show: For Severed Spots (2020), Mschf purchased a Damien Hirst “Spot” print, then cut out the dots—88 in all—and sold them individually. Its ATM Leaderboard (2022), a functional ATM with a screen above depicting the balance in the user’s checking account, caused a stir at Perrotin’s booth during Art Basel Miami Beach. One of its proudest works, however, is Key4All (2022), in which a PT Cruiser traversed the U.S. for nine months after Mschf sold 1,000 RFID key fobs to the car across the country. “This structure, in which Mschf creates the setting, props, and constraints for a performance that is then executed by the crowd, is core to our practice,” Bentel says.
MSCHF's Key4All car, (2022). Photo: Courtesy of MSCHF
Up next: “Land art, fast-food franchises, television, architecture, public office . . . anything we haven’t done,” says Wiesner.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Spring Issue under the headline “Creative Minds.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: A 2025 self-portrait of some of the members of Mschf with various artworks.
Photo: Courtesy of MSCHF
