Drones are entering every industrial sector imaginable, so why not the arts?  In fact, drones made their first splash – literally – in the art world as far back as 2015, when a street muralist known as “Katsu” piloted a drone into New York’s Hole Gallery to spray paint one of its walls.  Two years later, Katsu pre-programmed an autonomous drone to perform the same feat, leaving behind dozens of balloon-like images, each painted in a different color.  Then, in 2020, Katsu topped both acts by inviting his drone to stay in the Hole gallery and “work,” mimicking the activities of a guest studio artist.

Katsu may be alone in pushing the boundaries of “acceptable” drone activity and in challenging conventional definitions of artistic creativity.  The artist often engages in illegal street painting, defying local ordinances and fleeing law enforcement authorities when detected.  But so far as anyone knows, there has been no reported outbreak of drone-produced street graffiti appearing on walls and bridges anywhere in the world.

But it may be only a matter of time.  Presently, drones are involved in shooting video footage of art exhibitions, including street murals, in several major U.S. cities.  And at least one pioneering artist, Lisa Marie, has deployed a drone as a painter’s assistant.  Marie’s UAV takes aerial photographs of local scenery from above; she then uses its collected images to paint her own aerial landscapes of the same settings.  Other artists are attaching LED cameras to drones, allowing them to paint nocturnal landscapes in the dark.

Drones could, of course, be adapted to commercial and industrial settings to paint railroad bridges and building walls that normally require scaffolding and ladders, increasing the likelihood of injury.  In 2019, Voliro, a self-described “airborne robotics” company, claimed it had painted the first building wall facade – of the Zurich-based company, Limmata Spital – using a fully autonomous UAV.  The job took just 2.5 hours and the painting was flawless, reducing the cost and saving the firm money. But for a variety of reasons, the practice is not yet widespread.

Drones can also be objects of art. Take the alabaster fiberglass sculpture of the infamous armed Predator drone installed in Manhattan in 2012.  It was meant to publicize the role of drones in armed combat in Iraq and to raise ethical issues about their use.  Some hobbyists have also taken to painting their UAVs with their favorite colors, giving their drone a distinctive personal signature.

The rise of “drone art” – which includes using UAVs to orchestrate elaborate aerial light shows as an alternative to fireworks exhibitions– is a natural complement to their use for commercial purposes.  No one has accused Katsu of creating a Picasso but some have compared his splattered and dripping multi-colored dots to the expressionist paintings of Jackson Pollock. That’s a bit of a stretch. but it indicates how quickly drones are expanding into all realms of modern life, not just as industrial technology tools, but as paint brushes and canvases for artistic exploration.