Kara Walker’s Robots Come Alive in Major SFMOMA Commission

Best known for her black cut-paper silhouettes, American artist Kara Walker takes a new technological approach in her latest exhibition at SFMOMA. The show, titled Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), continues her explorations of race, power and history, guiding viewers through a surreal landscape of ritual and respite.

The exhibition’s eight Black automatons recall medieval symbols of faith and divinity as they rise and fall in shimmering fields of obsidian. Many of Walker’s robotic Gardeners are trapped in eternal cycles of struggle, though the installation’s central figure, Fortuna, acts as an angel of absolution. The seven-foot-tall prophetess commences a choreographed dance as she delivers freshly-printed fortunes from her mouth.

The artist draws from antique dolls, Bunraku puppetry and Octavia Butler’s Parables of the Sower to create her otherworldly cast.  At once, these works spotlight “the memorialization of trauma, the objectives of technology, and the possibilities of transforming the negative energies that plague contemporary society,” the museum explains.

Alongside the exhibition, an accompanying publication of the same name will be released early next year. In a display of paintings, drawings, photographs, conversations and written works, the book will offer a deeper insight into Walker’s speculative world.

Staged at the museum’s admission-free Roberts Family Gallery, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine) is now on view through spring 2026.

SFMOMA
151 3rd St,
San Francisco, CA 94103