Agnieszka Pilat

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Pilat, Hirshhorn

Agnieszka Pilat is a Polish-American artist and writer working at the intersection of robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and fine art. She specializes in rendering portraitures of technology to explore the relationship between humans and machines in the 21st century.[1]

Early life[edit]

Agnieszka Pilat grew up in Łódź, Poland during the height of the Cold War and witnessed the fall of the Polish People's Republic. Her mother was a gym-teacher, and her father was a pastry chef. In 1989, her father was able to buy the business he operated due to the new policies put forth by the post-Soviet government.[2] Pilat commends this move by her parents as the saving grace of her family; her father's alcoholism slowly reversed after taking on new responsibilities. Her father went on to own several bakeries and successfully transitioned to the implementation of free-trade practices.[3] In 2004, she moved to California to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in illustration and painting.[4] While studying at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, she developed a passion for portraiture and continues to emphasize this in her contemporary works.[5]

Career[edit]

Following the completion of her degree, Pilat operated a full-time studio in San Francisco where she painted portraits of people and industrial machines.[6] Much of her early work emphasizes the progression of time and the reality of the future. She has been featured in numerous venues and galleries such as the De Young Museum and Modernism.[7] After spending several years in the Bay Area art scene, Pilat began to realize that prolific collectors and industry leaders under-appreciated her technical skills in favor of more abstract pieces.[8]

Pilat's career began to change radically after meeting the developer Paul Stein.[9] As an avid collector of art and salvageable items, Stein asked Pilat to create a custom painting for him, which resulted in the rendering of a vintage fire alarm bell as a portrait.[10] Curiosity over her paintings became more prevalent among tech executives in Silicon Valley. Pilat began to seek out artistic opportunities with Bay Area tech giants and maintained residencies with organizations such as SpaceX,[11] Wrightspeed, Autodesk and Waymo.[12]

Once more commissions came, Pilat began to focus entirely on the representation of machines and devices instead of human portraiture. This newfound passion for cutting-edge technology, combined with interests in the future, led her to a residency with Boston Dynamics. By the Fall of 2020, Pilat had produced a variety of pieces featuring Spot, the yellow-dog-like robot created in Waltham, Massachusetts.[13] While she no longer serves as a guest resident artist for Boston Dynamics, she continues to use the robot as both a source of inspiration and as a co-artist. By using the robot's apparatus to hold and paint with an oil stick, the two have completed a wide array of memorable works, such as a futuristic Madonna (representation of Mary).[14]

Pilat's work has been featured in the fourth Matrix film, Matrix Resurrections,[15] and has been bought by notable collectors including Craig McCaw, Jorn Lyssegen, Yuri Milner, Peter Hirshberg, and Steve Jurvetson.[16][17] The artist maintains a full-time studio in Chelsea, Manhattan[18] and splits her time between New York and San Francisco.

Pilat has put on numerous shows and exhibitions of her own work. In 2021, she debuted the Renaissance 2.0 solo exhibition at Modernism West in San Francisco,[19] which depicted classic art in modern ways with augmented reality. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Pilat completed a painting with the assistance of the Boston Dynamics Spot robot, titled "Sunrise March," which sold for $40,000 at a private charity auction[20] and was subsequently exhibited alongside Poland's Embassy in Washington D.C. at the Hirshhorn Museum,[21] the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum,[22] and the Strathmore center.[23]

In April 2023, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia announced Pilat would headline its NGV Triennial museum exhibition, alongside Yoko Ono, Tracey Emin, and fashion house Schiaparelli,[24] with an installation featuring three Boston Dynamics robots painting autonomously for four months.[25]

References[edit]

  1. ^ McCreesh, Shawn (2022-01-18). "How Agnieszka Pilat Became Silicon Valley's Favorite Artist". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  2. ^ "Artist Agnieszka Pilat: 'I Didn't Realize People Still Think Socialism Is a Good Idea.'". Reason.com. 2022-05-11. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  3. ^ McCreesh, Shawn (2022-01-18). "How Agnieszka Pilat Became Silicon Valley's Favorite Artist". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  4. ^ McCreesh, Shawn (2022-01-18). "How Agnieszka Pilat Became Silicon Valley's Favorite Artist". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  5. ^ "Artist raises USD 40,000 for Ukrainian refugees with painting co-created by robotic dog". www.thefirstnews.com. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  6. ^ "Artist Agnieszka Pilat's strange journey from communist Poland to capitalist San Francisco". Big Think. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  7. ^ "ATO Homepage". atogallery.com. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  8. ^ "Artist Agnieszka Pilat's strange journey from communist Poland to capitalist San Francisco". Big Think. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  9. ^ Pavia, Will. "Why Silicon Valley fell for an artist and her (robot) dog". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  10. ^ "Artist Agnieszka Pilat's strange journey from communist Poland to capitalist San Francisco". Big Think. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  11. ^ "Artist Agnieszka Pilat: 'I Didn't Realize People Still Think Socialism Is a Good Idea.'". Reason.com. 2022-05-11. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  12. ^ Herbst, Meghan. "Portrait of Spot the Robot Dog Descending a Staircase". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  13. ^ Herbst, Meghan. "Portrait of Spot the Robot Dog Descending a Staircase". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  14. ^ Gerber, Dana (January 24, 2022). "How the Boston Dynamics robot Spot became one artist's muse — then, her assistant". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  15. ^ McCreesh, Shawn (2022-01-18). "How Agnieszka Pilat Became Silicon Valley's Favorite Artist". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  16. ^ McCreesh, Shawn (2022-01-18). "How Agnieszka Pilat Became Silicon Valley's Favorite Artist". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  17. ^ "How Agnieszka Pilat's Paintings Became Blue-Chip Picks for Collectors and Titans of Industry". Worth. 2022-02-07. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  18. ^ Pavia, Will. "Why Silicon Valley fell for an artist and her (robot) dog". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  19. ^ Davis, Chelsea. "Artist Agnieszka Pilat's Exhibition, Renaissance 2.0., Will Have You Second Guessing The Future Of Technology". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  20. ^ Spot can paint! Watch the robotic dog collaborate with artist | CNN Business, 2022-04-01, retrieved 2023-07-12
  21. ^ Bregman, Alexandra. "How Robot Art Reveals The Power Of Humanity". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  22. ^ "Chopin.The space concert | Alliance for Innovation". Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  23. ^ Access, Audience. "National Philharmonic". Audience Access. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  24. ^ Cain, Sian (2023-04-05). "Robot dogs among 100 artists to be unleashed on Melbourne for 2023 NGV Triennial". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  25. ^ Whiddington, Richard (2023-04-05). "The National Gallery of Victoria Has Announced Its 2023 Triennial Lineup, Featuring Three Robot Dogs Programmed to Paint". Artnet News. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
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