According to RIVAA Gallery:
RIVAA Gallery presents Augmented Humanity, a solo exhibition by Roosevelt Island artist Sophia Vitko
Exhibition dates: June 25 – July 5, 2026 at RIVAA Gallery, 527 Main Street, Roosevelt Island
The opening reception is Friday, June 26, from 6–9pm — free and open to the public.
Augmented Humanity explores what it means to be human in the present moment — augmented by the phone, hooked into the feed, assisted (and increasingly replaced) by AI, accompanied by humanoid machines that are starting to look like us. Sophia’s paintings are not arguments for or against this condition. One of the enduring goals of artists has always been to depict current reality as we experience it — and Sophia believes this moment is worth depicting.
The exhibition brings together a body of figurative paintings and installations exploring how contemporary human identity is shaped by the growing impact of digital technology and artificial intelligence. Featured works explore the theme of humanoid robots learning from humans. Among them is Replacing Ourselves, in which a humanoid robot stands beside a woman absorbed in her phone, carefully observing and learning from her behavior. In Low Battery, the robot has become nearly indistinguishable from a human being. Standing alone in a red room, it appears tired and in need of recharging. Infinite Scroll triptych reflects on our shortened attention spans in an era of endless content.
What makes Sophia’s perspective distinctive: she’s not just a painter. She’s a visual artist with a background in software engineering — someone who has built technology. And yet she chose the slowest, most physical medium for this work — painting — because it is precisely what allows her to feel human in a fast-paced, digitalized world.
“I want to depict how it feels to be human now, augmented by all these devices. Robots are becoming more like us; we are becoming more like them. My background in engineering gave me a structural understanding of these systems; painting is where I feel through what that understanding cannot resolve. In the age of AI and AGI, what in us will not transfer to a machine? It is a question that continues to guide my work.” – Sophia Vitko