Kevin Esherick

Esherick’s February 2026 solo show at Heft is a deep exploration into how technology stands to reshape the roles of authorship and authenticity in our society, both in art-making and beyond.

What happens when technology can do everything that we can do, but “better”? What happens when it replaces us? What do we do then? Who do we become? Esherick is reckoning with these questions by living them out, training an AI model on his own work until it’s capable of replacing his practice, and then letting it do exactly that for one year. This model is now ready, and the period of his replacement will begin with the opening of this show.

The focus is not the technological achievement of such a model, or even the art created by it, but instead on the one year performance of leaving the artist adrift. The prospect of
spending a year alienated from an artist’s practice and passion is invariably daunting, and this undertaking looks at how losing our sources of creativity, human meaning, and connection changes us.