Painting the Next Big Art Movement with Agnieszka Pilat and Her Robots
The next big thing in the art world has already been making waves for years across the planet for her advantageous developments. Agnieszka Pilat has established herself as a living legend when it comes to being a master artist.
Born in Poland, she moved to America and completed her first residency in 2017 at Wrightspeed. Pilat’s artwork with Silicon Valley tech companies and executives provides a humanizing vision for future technologies. Her heroic portraits of technology appropriate the tradition of royal portraiture to evoke the power that machines command in human society today. Her art can be found in public and private collections in the United States, South America, China, and Europe.
As a female artist, she has done it all, including being a coveted guest speaker at the 2018 Women of X conference. One of her latest endeavors at Boston Dynamics was recognized as a radical and progressive marker in her portfolio that dazzled media across America.
“I get to go to some pretty awesome places because I am a technology romantic and a machine lover. And I have a love affair with machines – this is as good as it gets,” states the artist about what was documented as one of the first human artistic projects with technology with her muse Spot, an actual robot that painted alongside her large-scale portraits.
The mobile robot is designed for sensing, inspection, and remote operation. Famously known for transformative mobility, the agile machine is capable of navigating terrain with unprecedented mobility. When first shown it walked up stairs to the delight of the world. The planet watched it automate routine inspection tasks that were executed and data captured safely, accurately, and frequently. Now the next task is creating fantastic art with Pilat.
The experiment is like being on a giant playground full of games – full of possibilities. It’s a perfect format for someone like Pilat, who has always successfully experimented with technology and art blending together. Her latest series, Renaissance 2.0 is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco. As an artist coming out from Silicon Valley, Pilat sees an important connection between the Renaissance: much as innovation changed the world during the Renaissance, innovators in technology are changing the world today.
The legacy of Leonardo is especially important in her latest works – in her version of Vitruvian Man (in Craig McCaw’s collection) she replaced the human figure with a humanoid robot, Atlas. In her reinterpretation of Michelangelo, the paintings are based on the most famous section of the Sistine Chapel ceiling where Michelangelo depicts God giving life to Adam – but she substituted robotic arms for their musculature.
As she enters the New York art scene, the world is noticing – her latest experimental painting created in collaboration with Spot just sold in auction at Sotheby’s on October 8.
With so much already rooted in her work, it will be incredibly fascinating to see what she paints next.
As she enters the New York art scene, the world is noticing – her latest experimental painting created in collaboration with Spot just sold in auction at Sotheby’s on October 8.
