David Salle Uses AI in New Paintings at Palazzo Cini, Venice, Presented by Thaddaeus Ropac
The Facts
On July 14, 2026, Thaddaeus Ropac gallery announced an exhibition of new works by David Salle, titled "Painting in the Present Tense," at the Palazzo Cini in Venice. Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, the series results from Salle’s use of an artificial intelligence model trained on his own images, exploring technology as a tool to generate new visual relationships. Salle, a protagonist of the Pictures Generation and a key figure in American painting since the 1980s, positions AI as a means to break compositional conventions while maintaining the human responsibility for meaning and materiality.
The Signal
The exhibition signals a significant moment in Salle’s decades-long practice, as he directly engages with one of contemporary art’s most debated questions: the role of AI in painting. By training a model on his own oeuvre, Salle treats the algorithm as an extension of his creative process rather than a replacement, testing how digital tools can yield unexpected formal outcomes. For collectors and curators, the show offers insight into how a seasoned painter navigates the tension between tradition and emerging technology, set against the backdrop of Venice, a city that annually attracts major art-world attention during the Biennale season.
- Artists: David Salle
- People: Luca Massimo Barbero
- Galleries: Thaddaeus Ropac
- Museums: Palazzo Cini
- Locations: Venice
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