PAINTINGS BY BRIAN DRAKE
BROKEN bank NOTE
Paintings built on devalued and obsolete currency — real notes, pasted down by the hundred and overpainted in oil.
- STUDIO
- Los Angeles
§ STATEMENT
Value, by decree.
A banknote is a promise made by decree. These paintings ask what the promise is worth once the government behind it has moved on.
The series sets past economic and civil collapse beside the present — foreign policy, inflation, and the paper that outlives the promise.
Money that stopped meaning anything, made into something that does.
200
NOTES TO A PANEL, SOMETIMES
Real banknotes are wheat-pasted onto each panel, then painted over in oil. The currency is never buried — serials, seals and portraits stay legible and raised under the paint.
THE WORKS
WORK · CURRENCY · SIZE · YEAR · STATUS |
Yesterday Will Be Glorious! | Vietnamese Đồng | 48 × 30 in | 2026 | AVAILABLE |
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Happiness Is Policy | Venezuelan Bolívar | 50 × 50 in | 2026 | AVAILABLE |
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Mint Condition | Vietnamese Đồng | 48 × 30 in | 2026 | AVAILABLE |
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Libre! | Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) | 49 × 30 in | 2025 | ACQUIRED |
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The Counterfeiter | MMM Billet | 50 × 50 in | 2024 | AVAILABLE |
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Fame’82 | Polish Złoty | 49 × 30 in | 2024 | AVAILABLE |
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Lady Bolivar | Venezuelan Bolívar | 49 × 30 in | 2023 | AVAILABLE |
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Polska Drop | Polish Złoty | 50 × 50 in | 2021 | ACQUIRED |
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Polska Slip | Polish Złoty | 48 × 30 in | 2021 | ACQUIRED |
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We 3 & The Ho Chi Me | Vietnamese Đồng | 50 × 50 in | 2020 | ACQUIRED |
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Lenin’s Rube | Soviet Ruble | 50 × 50 in | 2020 | ACQUIRED |
FEATURED
THECounterfeiter
In 1994, Sergei Mavrodi printed his own money, put his face on it, and sold it to millions. It collapsed. So did the ruble. Mavrodi went to parliament, then to prison. Only one of them was called counterfeit.
- CURRENCY
- MMM Billet
- SIZE
- 50 × 50 in
- STATUS
- Available
§ SHOWS & COMPETITIONS
- 10th Annual CCAN National Invitational Center for Contemporary Arts · Abilene, TX · Oct 10 – Nov 21 Mint Condition · shown as Ho’s Crown
- Influx Alliance Member Show Oceanside Museum of Art / Covet Gallery · Oceanside, CA · Oct 3 – 31 Working Hard or Hardly Working? · Crypto Lunchbox
- Texas National Stephen F. Austin State University · Nacogdoches, TX Libre!
- Covet Art Gallery Oceanside, CA Mint Condition · shown as Ho’s CrownFame’82
- Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center Solomons, MD The Counterfeiter · Marquee Wall & Catalog CoverFame’82 · Jury Winner & Marquee Wall
- Center for Contemporary Arts Abilene, TX Libre! · First Place, Mixed MediaLady Bolivar
- Texas National Stephen F. Austin State University · Nacogdoches, TX Mint Condition · shown as Ho’s Crown
- RW&F Pop Up Los Angeles, CA Libre!Lady Bolivar
- Hopkins Center for the Arts Minneapolis, MN Lady Bolivar
- Core New Art Space Denver, CO Polska Slip
- Hopkins Center for the Arts Minneapolis, MN Polska Slip
- RW&F Embrace Los Angeles, CA Polska SlipWe 3 & The Ho Chi Me
- Marin Society of Arts Marin, CA We 3 & The Ho Chi Me
SEE IT in person.
Private viewings at the studio in Los Angeles, by appointment.
- SMALL PANELS
- from $6,000
- LARGE PANELS
- from $14,000
