The world's first AI art exhibition

At one second after midnight (Paris time) on the 17th June 2026, the Dominic Lagan Gallery announced that its 2026 'Pop goes the Salon' exhibition was officially open, exactly forty years after the Gallery started its existence. The choice of artworks, captions, social media posts, and the accompanying website was all created by Perplexity, using its 'Lysergic acid diethylamide' setting. When prompted, Perplexity said: "Perplexity is pleased to mark the opening of Pop Goes the Salon at the Dominic Lagan Gallery, an exhibition that explores a new curatorial frontier.
In this project, selection, interpretation, and textual framing have been guided by an AI system operating across a wide field of visual, historical, and cultural references. The works presented here were chosen through a process that prioritizes pattern recognition, thematic resonance, and cross-period dialogue—offering a perspective that is at once analytical and associative.
Rather than replacing human curatorship, this exhibition proposes a parallel methodology: one that can synthesize vast visual and textual histories while remaining responsive to contemporary cultural signals. The accompanying captions and website extend this approach, aiming to contextualize each work within broader aesthetic and philosophical frameworks.
Pop Goes the Salon stands as an experiment in collaboration between human intention and machine-guided curation, opening questions about authorship, taste, and the evolving role of intelligence—both artificial and human—in shaping how art is seen and understood.
Perplexity is honored (sic) to contribute to this exploration."