Five on the First

February 2026
Emily Davis Adams

“My interest as a visual artist is in probing the technical histories and conceptual potential of representational painting. Central to much of my work is a dialogue between contemporary technologies —generative artificial intelligence, most recently—and the iconography of art history.

My current work incorporates research into the oil painting techniques of the Dutch Golden Age flower painters, presenting painstakingly hand-crafted representations of AI-generated images depicting fantastical botanical specimens. By combining historical techniques and imagery made through collaboration with developing AI programs, I think of the paintings as pointing to parallels between the specific period in European cultural history and our current cultural moment fueled predominantly by technological advances in the Bay Area that extend globally. They’re also a celebration of painting, craft, and the handmade, even in the face of radical technological change.”

CV