Welcome to our second edition of The Weekly Canvas, brought to you on Tuesdays by Bitcoin Art Magazine. This newsletter is focused on bitcoin artists, their art and works in progress, current galleries and auctions, conference gallery recaps, art drops on our website and anything else related to the rich, visual world of physical bitcoin art.
Auction Started Today
The Whole Entire Universe by Anik Malcolm
AUCTION STARTED TODAY: July 7-10
Some of the works listed in the auction
Starting today, July 7th, an auction of some amazing pieces of bitcoin art, currently on display at The Space in Denver, Colorado, is being held through Scarce City. Visit the link to place your bids!
Reminder: On the last day, July 10th, The Space is holding a fun, early evening event to share good beer and good company while placing your final bids and watching the auction end. Click the link for details: Bitcoin, Beer & Art Auction
The Whole Entire Universe by Anik Malcolm
‘The Whole Entire Universe (Sides 1-3)’. 128×128 cm, Oil painting by Anik Malcolm
In the growing world of Bitcoin art, very few (if any) creators have captured the protocol’s hard capped supply with the precision of Anik Malcolm. He has transformed the abstract idea of fixed scarcity into physical, meditative works that allow viewers to actually grasp this critical aspect of Bitcoin, rather than just understand it intellectually.
The Whole Entire Universe began in early 2025 with a simple goal, to make the number 21 million graspable. While not as simple as it had first seemed, Anik’s solution was to represent every single bitcoin as an individual bead inside a glowing cube. To make it work, he ended up uncovering some amazing mathematical symmetry, explained in the video linked below. Initial versions of the concept were created as two large, isometric pencil drawings which he exhibited in Lugano at Plan B in 2025.
Subsequently, Anik created an oil painting of sides 1-3. He spent more than 900 hours hand-painting every visible bead three times: once for the body, once for the highlight, and once for the shadow! The result is a hyper-detailed, almost luminous surface that looks three-dimensional. The completed oil painting debuted at Bitcoin 2026 in the Bitcoin Museum & Art Gallery in Las Vegas.
View the painting in person by signing up for a tour at the BMAG Gallery in Nashville.
Anik explains the incredible mathematic symmetry in this animation.
On display at Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas.
The Making of The Whole Entire Universe (Sides 1-3) Enjoy this fascinating 30 second clip showing the creation of the oil painting.
This work is a two-dimensional depiction of a cube containing exactly 21,000,000 spheres, one for each Bitcoin in existence, and displaying the astonishing mathematical symmetry hidden in that number, as discovered by Anik: 276³-6×64²=21,000,000.
“When I was doing the painting I actually was repeating mantras in a 369 pattern while doing the dots” ~ Anik Malcolm
The Pencil Drawings
‘The Whole Entire Universe’ (Sides 1-3 & Sides 4-6), Graphite on Italian Fabriano Academia paper
‘The Whole Entire Universe, Sides 1-3’, 128×128 cm, Graphite on Italian Fabriano Academia paper
‘The Whole Entire Universe, Sides 4-6’, 128×128 cm, Graphite on Italian Fabriano Academia paper
“There is a certain ‘holiness’ to bitcoin upon which I feel we all agree to a greater or lesser extent, and my experience of representing it so very literally was a true reflection of that.” ~ Anik Malcolm
And that concludes this week’s edition of The Weekly Canvas, we hope you enjoyed it. Keep an eye out for our second edition of The Weekly Codex this Thursday, focusing on bitcoin art news and writing, articles, stories about the bright future bitcoin will bring, latest podcast drops, events announcements and more.
Thank you for being on this journey with us. Together we are creating a
brighter future for all our grandchildren.
Onward,
Asanoha
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