Renaissance 2.0: Artist Agnieszka Pilat in Conversation

Please note: Due to the SF government mandate, we are required to request proof of vaccination at the door and will be enforcing the use of face coverings when not actively eating or drinking.

Please join us in a conversation with our artist-in-residence, Agnieszka Pilat about the future relationship between man and technology. In her upcoming show, Renaissance 2.0, at Modernism Gallery, advanced robots are portrayed in the tradition of museum paintings, as a means to announce the arrival of The Modern Aristocracy: Machines that Think.

“We live in an increasingly computerized, networked world. Machine networks hold the reins of power, they are the ruling class of tomorrow, perhaps divine god-kings of the near future. Industrial machines are the ancestors, the grandfathers of these mega networks of today, and so they must be portrayed in a language once reserved for the royal classes: formal portraiture. Portraiture in the tradition of museum painting is a sure way to announce the arrival of the modern aristocracy of Mega-machine networks coming to power.” - Pilat

Following the conversation will be an appearance by Boston Dynamics robotic dog, Spot.

ABOUT AGNIESZKA PILAT

Polish-born artist, Agnieszka Pilat is best known for her series of heroic portraits of technology and machines. She’s been artist-in-residence at Waymo (Google self-driving car project), Autodesk, USS Hornet Museum, Wrightspeed (electric vehicle startup founded by Tesla co-founder Ian Wright), and is a guest artist-in-residence at Boston Dynamics.

She is a part of the Silver Arts Program Cohort at The World Trade Center in New York City and as a self-proclaimed machine chaser, she commutes between the east and west coasts in pursuit of emergent technologies.

In her practice, Pilat is taking not just painting, but the genre of portraiture as a starting point: in art history, portraits reflect the power balance in society and she believes that today technology holds that power. The machines in her works are preemptively posing for their place in museums of the future, provoking us to consider the trajectory they embody. “To understand the future, we must understand the machine”, says the artist.

Pilat’s exhibitions include Google, de Young Museum, Rochester Museum of Fine Arts Biennial, and Art Week Miami, FL. She is also a frequent guest on panel discussions revolving around art and technology, including Women of X at Google and most recently at Immersive Art Alliance.

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