50 One Dollar Bills

Created in collaboration between Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot) and CIRCA, 50 One Dollar Bills belongs to an ongoing series of screen-printed artworks by the iconic artist, activist and musician.

A woman has not been featured on US paper money in over 100 years since Martha Washington’s portrait was featured on the one silver dollar note in the 1880s and 90s. Representative of Tolokonnikova’s iconic style of blending art with activism, the uncut currency sheet depicts a uniform 5-by-10 grid of $1 bills with the first president’s face disguised anonymously in a pink balaclava – a distinctive nod to Punk Prayer.

Stylistically, the vibrant work screen-printed in two layers on a silk screen press is an ode to Andy Warhol’s aptly named ‘200 One Dollar Bills‘, marking the first instance of Warhol’s use of the silk-screening method. In 2022, the essential 20th-century artist topped the auction world with a turnover total of $590 million, representing an art market dominated by males, as female artists represented just 2% of total sales that same year.