Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time & Technology
Getty's PST ART Art & Science Collide
First exhibited in LA to critically acclaim, a new expanded version of the show opens
at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art SF
January 22–April 11, 2026
In Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time, and Technology, artists Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg invite visitors to consider nature and temporality in new and surprising ways. Drawing inspiration from dendrochronology (the science of tree ring dating), and contemporary developments in data science and artificial intelligence, the artists present a series of sculptural and media installations that offer new interpretations of the past, the present, and imagined futures.
The presentation at di Rosa expands on the original exhibition, which originated in 2024 as part of the Getty Museum’s PST ART: Art and Science Collide initiative at Skirball Cultural Center co-curated by Selma Holo and Skirball Associate Curator Vicki Phung Smith. The expanded presentation includes new collaborative artworks that are site-specific to the Bay Area and related works from each artist’s career. It was organized by Twyla Ruby, di Rosa Curator of Exhibitions + Programs.
Exhibition Sponsors:
"...This exhibition delivered insight, knowledge, new ways of seeing, experiencing, and enhancing the health of our cities.... its works and the ideas animating it are deep, large and expansive." - Tom Teicholz
“Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg, who both understand the power of art to raise questions.
This exhibition is a rare combination of exquisite craftsmanship and dedicated scholarship…” - Lita Barrie
"Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg harness the beauty and power of trees." - Jessica Gelt & Carren Jao
“Artists Ken Goldberg and Tiffany Shlain transform centuries of tree rings into a stunning exploration of humanity’s evolving relationship with nature and technology.” - Vittoria Benzine
“Shlain’s arresting and philosophically charged sculptures made with salvaged wood and fire-writing, with Goldberg’s artistically expressed data-gathering and AI-enhanced “tree census,” in a tech-driven and human-sourced case for an expanded way of looking at time and human history” - Shana Nys Dambrot
About the Artists
Partners in life for nearly 30 years and frequent creative collaborators, Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg have worked together on art installations and Emmy-nominated and Sundance films. Shlain and Goldberg also work independently as artists. Goldberg’s work was in the Whitney Biennial and he is represented by Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco. Shlain’s live cinema performance Dear Human premiered at MoMA and she is represented by Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York. Shlain is founder of the Webby Awards, and as a film director, her films have shown at Sundance, the Guggenheim, and embassies globally and have received over 60 awards. Goldberg and his students at UC Berkeley, where he is a robotics professor, have published over 400 research papers on robotics and artificial intelligence, and he holds twelve US patents. This is the artists’ most comprehensive visual art collaboration to date.
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