A surgeon father and an artist son discover a common love: robots
Gregory Weinstein is a pioneer of robotics surgery. He builds Legos with his son Jake who, unsurprisingly, now designs his own robots on paper and sculpture.
Jake Weinstein and his dad, Gregory Weinstein, both spend a lot of time thinking about robots.
Jake, an art student, has been drawing robots since he was young, inspired after watching Star Wars films like A New Hope and Return of the Jedi with Gregory, an avid sci-fi fan. The idea of a friendly robot like C-3PO or R2-D2 stuck with the curious kid who was constantly doodling.
His parents were “signing me up for arts classes as soon as I could walk,” said Jake, who grew up in Gladwyne. Robots were a frequent subject in his drawing, sculpture, and illustration pursuits.
That passion may have developed partially through osmosis.
Gregory Weinstein is a pioneer of robotic surgery for addressing head and neck cancer at the University of Pennsylvania. He regularly operates an advanced machine’s tiny, precise arms to remove tumors from patients’ throats.
“Jake heard about robots from the very beginning because my wife [Penn radiologist Susan Weinstein] and I were constantly talking about it,” said the surgeon, who now lives in Wayne.
By the time Jake got to high school, he couldn’t wait to try robotics to see if the technology he imagined matched up with reality. But the experience was deflating.
“I was a little annoyed that the robots didn’t look pretty enough, and the goal was to shoot a ball into a net. Who cares?” said the now 24-year-old Penn student who lives in University City. “I want to see something walking and talking. It was an arm on wheels and no personality. They put me to sleep.”
Enrolling in a joint program with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Jake designed his own machines on paper. They were humanistic and expressive; a tender dome-headed machine holding a purple flower or a goofy dancer squatting as if mid-“Thriller.” Another appears with one green eye, surrounded by industrial clouds of meticulous, minimalist lines — the giant may seem intimidating, but it’s focused on the smaller robot in its palm; Jake named the piece The Caretaker.
His work soon caught the attention of Evan Slepian, who runs the Works on Paper Gallery in Rittenhouse and often features PAFA students. (Robots have also been a subject of his previous shows.)
The gallerist has served as a mentor to Jake over the past four months as they developed his first solo exhibit “Clanker,” running through Dec. 31. (The derogatory term for robots — derived from Star Wars, too — has become a frequent punchline across the internet.)
The show spotlights Jake’s sculpture work, too, with elaborate frames made from found wood and recycled objects that frame his drawings as well as toddler-size painted wooden and aluminum robots. Slepian says the show is performing well, with sculptures selling around $1,300 and framed ink drawings, around $2,100.
A few of Jake’s drawings pull directly from his dad’s surgery work, depicting centimeter-long metal arms conducting surgery to replace the lungs and brain with machines.
Gregory finds his son’s creative visions delightful. The surgeon — a third-generation doctor from Staten Island — has fond memories of his own art classes in youth. He even contributed his own artistic efforts along his medical career: His first academic paper featured his own illustrations of an operation his colleague from Paris conducted on a cadaver.
“You would have been the fourth generation of doctors … but as you grew up, I thought, ‘Well, that’s a silly idea.’ I just want you to do work you’re going to be happy from,” Gregory said to Jake on a recent Thursday at the gallery, adding that his grandfather dabbled in art, too.
“My grandfather was an incredibly good artist. He wanted to study art when he and my grandmother met,” Gregory recalled, chuckling. “My grandmother said, ‘Unless you become a doctor, I won’t marry you.’”
Gregory, however, always encouraged his son’s artistry.
“We did lots of Legos together. That was like a father-son thing, so I guess he did introduce me to some form of sculpture,” said Jake.
Beyond his gallery show, Jake is also one of the artists helping to build a new arts venue in a historic bank in Old City called the Ministry of Awe, led by Philly muralist Meg Saligman.
Jake’s art has resonated at a time when artificial intelligence has become widely accessible and the prospect of advanced robotics seems to inch ever closer to the futuristic world of The Jetsons. Still, he remains optimistic about the future.
“Through this narrative [in the show], it’s like, ‘Let’s try and be friends with the robots. Let’s work with them. Let’s not work against them,’” he said.
His plans for the forthcoming holiday season? Another ambitious Lego project with dad.
“Jake Weinstein: Clanker” is on view through Dec. 31 at Works on Paper Gallery, 1611 Walnut St., Mezzanine, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103, 215-988-9999 or wpartcollection.com.