Collectors Interview with Tyler Golato

Lilith: Thank you for taking time to do this. We thought it would be insightful to not only have the perspective of the artist and the gallery, but also of a collector. At the end of the day, you are just as much part of this business as we are. Is that a Beatriz Morales behind you?

Tyler: Yes, it is indeed. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’m curious to meet Marco. What exactly is the goal? So it’s highlighting the perspective of both the artist and collector. And are you trying to, converge thematically on this intersection of science and art, specifically, or…?

Lilith: Exactly, that’s why we contacted you. You’re also quite involved in the sciences, as I gathered?

Tyler:  Yes, I started out my career training in medicine in the United States. I ended up transitioning to a research career, specifically in cancer therapeutics. But I’m a biochemist by training. After that, I worked at the National Institutes on Aging, where my work there was focused on aging and development, specifically DNA damage and repair. Then I moved to South Africa, where I worked in HIV vaccine development, and also founded a company called Molecule, which is what I’ve been doing for the past six years. 

That company’s focus is on creating new ways to develop therapeutics by fostering patient involvement. So we bring together patients with rare diseases or patients in an area where pharmaceutical companies don’t have an economic interest to develop drugs. For example, in psychedelics for mental health, areas like aging, where it’s difficult from a regulatory perspective, or women’s reproductive health.

I’m now starting a venture fund, investing in companies that are at the intersection of scientific disciplines. So, biology and artificial intelligence or physics and biology, and actually working on a lot of creative projects otherwise. I’m an artist myself and produce music. I also do some visual art, but more on the digital art side. I’ve been interested in this intersection of art and science for a long time. Even from a younger age, I was collecting works from people like David Goodsell, who was doing high magnification watercolor paintings of proteins and things like this.

And, yeah Marco’s work is particularly interesting because of this intersection. I think there’s a emotionally ambiguous quality, but also a lot of things reflecting the relationship between man and machine. And also really his process in general.

Lilith: We are actually exhibiting Marcos new work this Saturday. He has a whole new process, involving sculptures that not many people know about yet. So I wanted to give some insight into that. Also, I don’t know if you’ve seen his recent work. I think the work you purchased is a little bit older. It doesn’t have the metallic applications yet. Right?

Tyler: Right, exactly. There is this is kind of metallic process that is going on on the side but I think the work that he’s doing now shows a change in style, with the process suddenly changing. It is really interesting.

Lilith: Yes, he looked into how he could combine chemistry and technology with Art. So he just expanded one field out. Now he also uses chemicals that form reflective pools on the canvas, giving new metallic qualities to his work. What drew you to the specific work that you bought?

Tyler: I really like art that has this kind of emotionally ambiguous quality, I feel the same with music. So when I’m looking at abstract expressionism, or something where you have a strong element of form that is suggestive, but not something that is too on the nose it still leaves quite a lot up to interpretation. This one for me had this form in the center of the work that is almost something that can be interpreted like a face, or a being or an entity. And I really liked that kind of ambiguity. I also think a big part of it is the process as well. The notion of the painting machines to create these forms. I also love the contrast between the stained canvas with the purple and then there’s a kind of metallic field on the side. So it’s a super textural work, also same with the Beatrice Morales piece. I really like it when you have this intersection between interesting form and emotional ambiguity, meanwhile it is quite textural. And something that almost reflects nature. In a way nature is like this right? You have this intersection between form, texture and some sort of emotional quality. The piece just has like a lot of that, it has presence. It’s a quite a large piece. And I feel like his works, especially the larger ones. They command the room. So it’s it’s a nice centerpiece.

Lilith: How did you find out about Marco Reichert?

Tyler: I’ve been so curious about the Berlin art scene. We actually built offices at St. Agnes church, so our neighbours are the König gallery. I am interested in people working in abstract art and abstract expressionism. As such I am always looking for people who are at this intersection between art and science specifically.

One of the things that immediately jumped out about Marco was just this really interesting process perspective where the process itself is a big part of the end result. I really love this notion of his painting machines. I’m really always looking for people who are working at this intersection because I also see science, like doing science, you’re kind of on the frontier, exploring things that other people aren’t aware of. Scientific discovery itself is a fundamentally creative process. And I think for myself, a huge part of my life has been focused on sciences, but another part has really been focused on on the arts. And I never viewed these as two distinctly different things, but rather a part of the same continuum. I think doing sciences is an artistic and creative pursuit. If you are looking for people who have an original process focused on that intersection of arts and science in Berlin then it’s actually a relatively small space. There’s not that many people doing something similar to what Marcos doing and I also I really liked the gallery in general. I also purchased this piece from from Beatrice from you.

Lilith: Wonderful that you also have a piece from Beatriz. Maybe you can tell me more about you as a collector. Do you see yourself as a collector per se? What is your inspiration behind buying art, because everyone has a different approach to it. Some people have an investment standpoint behind it, some people only go for certain artists. I think it’s very interesting to see the differences here.

Tyler: I don’t buy art as an investment. I think I would say that even though I think much of it is an investment, I never had the perspective of resale, I never had the projection of value.

I think there’s two axes on which I buy art, or maybe even three. The first is just strong, emotional resonance. It’s ticking a bunch of boxes, appreciating the vision of this person and appreciating what they’re trying to convey, having it emotionally resonate on my own level.

Another thing is curiosity about process. So people who have a particular process that is unique, for example, working at this intersection.

And then the third is supporting friends. I would say that maybe half of my art collection, is the work of friends or people who are in the arts, who I care about, who I want to support and who I think are passionate people who are pouring their heart into something. I really value people who approach craft in kind of an obsessive way. So people who spend their life with this kind of linear pursuit or linear focus, just exploring something and doing the best possible work that they can. I think, if you have the ability to support people who are doing these things one should do so, its a huge privilege. 

And I think it’s also about what one wants to see more of in the world. And in my collection, I have other works from people who are working at the intersection of music and visual arts or photography. In terms of paintings again, I’m more interested in this in this process driven work. But I would say that art is, in my mind, the process of creation. So whether it’s building a company, whether it’s creating art, whether it’s an interesting dialogue with a friend. This is as close to the purpose of life as you can get. And so when that takes an interesting form, whether it’s a metal worker, or whether it’s somebody who’s doing ceramics, whether it’s someone who has an interesting process of painting. I think it’s really nice to try and try and support that if you have the means. I don’t overthink about it either. When I like something, and it resonates, and the process is interesting, I normally just go for it if I can. Absolutely,

Lilith: That’s a beautiful perspective to have on it. You’re also investing emotions into it, and it’s giving something back for your life. It’s a constant presence when living with your art, right? It influences your everyday.

Who is Tyler Golato:

Tyler Golato is a scientist, musician, and visual artist with extremely broad interests.

As Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Molecule AG, he currently works on a platform that fosters decentralized, modular, and collaborative drug development. He is also a founding steward at VitaDAO, dedicated to supporting longevity research through a decentralized funding collective, as well as PsyDAO, a collective focused on funding psychedelic research.

His prior experience includes an IRTA Fellowship at the National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA/IRP) under the mentorship of Dr. David M. Wilson III and Dr. Vilhelm Bohr, where he focused on endogenous DNA damage repair in the context of aging. During his undergraduate studies, he collaborated with Dr. Ron Hutchison and Dr. Daniel Hernandez to examine pathogenesis in limulus egg populations using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and conducted research at Columbia University with Dr. Robert Fine, investigating chemotherapy resistance mechanisms in pancreatic cancer and developing novel therapeutic strategies for various cancers.

In addition to his professional pursuits, he maintains a broad interest in decentralized science, artificial intelligence, psychedelics, and longevity research, as he am passionate about exploring the potential of cutting-edge technologies and innovative approaches to enhance our understanding of the world and improve human lives.

Tyler expresses his creativity through electronic music production under multiple aliases, contributing to several labels, and performing as a DJ under the moniker Faretrade.

He also produce visual art under the monikers Scanate and 0xracle – two different projects focused on textural, abstracted and more distorted images.