When most people hear “Doge” they think of Dogecoin, internet memes, or Elon Musk, but the as-yet-untold history of this Japanese Shiba Inu is far more rich and inspiring. Communities around the world honour the Doge, whose name is Kabosu, and strive to “Do Only Good Everyday”.

OwnTheDoge (OTD), FeistyDAO (NFD) and OSHI are proud to present the first ever exhibition featuring the original “Mona Lisa of the Internet”, Kabosu the Doge, will take place in Melbourne.

A Brief History

Kabosu was born sometime in 2005 in a Japanese puppy mill. When the mill closed down, Kabosu and her siblings were put up for adoption. She was saved from euthanasia by kindergarten teacher Atsuko Sato, on November 2nd, 2008. This date would become Kabosu’s chosen birthday.

Satō manages a blog and in 2010 she uploaded eight photos of Kabosu. Shortly afterwards, one of these photos (the famous image) was somehow used in a promo carousel on Reddit for their advertising options. John Monarch, (papajohn56 on Reddit) saw this image of a Shiba Inu with a quizzical look, and made a Reddit post titled, “LMBO LOOK @THIS FUKKEN DOGE”. This is how Kabosu got her name.

By 2013, Doge memes were all over the internet, often accompanied by phrases of “dog-speak” written in comic sans (“much wow”, “so scare”). In December of that year, the cryptocurrency Dogecoin was created, and in 2019 Know Your Meme recognised Doge as “Meme of the Decade”.

In 2021, Satō auctioned the original 8 photos as unique, 1/1 NFTs: Non-Fungible Tokens which leverage blockchain technology to record the ownership and secure the provenance of digital assets. The international art collective, PleasrDAO, purchased the original Doge photo as a unique NFT for approximately $4M USD, making it the most expensive meme and the third most expensive photo ever sold.

The DAO broke down the image into fractions, which are represented by a cryptocurrency token called $DOG.

Doge: The Exhibition will feature eight original Doge images as well as other digital pieces/projects that have been created by OwnTheDoge and NFD communities. The entire OSHI gallery space will be transformed for the occasion and feature a deep dive into the history and provenance of the Doge, including some rare physical artifacts. All dogs and humans are welcome to enjoy the space, hear the story, admire the art, and even paint a giant collaborative Doge mural upstairs.

The Official Launch event is on Thursday, the 22nd of February starting at 6PM. The event will include complimentary food and drink, a panel discussion, as well as the first ever opportunity to buy official Doge merch and a Limited Edition run of limited edition prints. It is highly recommended that you reserve your spot here.

The exhibition will continue to run from Friday the 23rd until Wednesday the 28th of February. Open daily, from 12PM - 6PM.

On Saturday and Sunday afternoon OSHI will open the beer garden and serve hot dog(e)s, from 2PM - 4PM.

On Monday the 26th, local pop-artist Lambie will run a free meme-art workshop inspired by the Doge, from 6pm - 9pm. Register here to reserve your spot.

For up-to-date schedule and registration links for all side-events, click here.