Pilar Zeta

Pilar Zeta is an Argentine multimedia artist, graphic designer and creative director currently based on Mexico City. She is best known for her surrealist style, which was inspired by ancient Egypt and cosmology. After meeting Phil Harvey, from British rock band Coldplay, she made artworks for A Head Full of Dreams (2015), Everyday Life (2019), Music of the Spheres (2021) and Moon Music (2024), the former being nominated in the Best Recording Package category at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Her efforts also include creative direction for Lil Nas X's debut album, Montero (2021), and Camila Cabello's "Don't Go Yet" music video, which received a Clio Award. During the same year, she designed Hall of Visions, an installation at Faena Hotel for Miami Art Week. In 2022, Zeta launched The Space of Variations and Future Transmutation, with the former being her first solo exhibition. She then created Doors of Perception, an installation exhibited at Galerie Philia in 2023.

Early life
Pilar Zeta was born on 15 June 1986 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She began to draw and paint at six years old, with her mother (an art history teacher) being a "driving force" for non-traditional inspirations such as metaphysics, indigo children philosophies and the paranormal. Moreover, she used to be taken to various art museums by her father, becoming "so overwhelmed with the colors and techniques that as soon as I was home I was trying" to recreate the artworks seen. With her brother owning a record collection, Zeta enjoyed investigating album covers used by bands including Pink Floyd, the Alan Parsons Project and Led Zeppelin.

She has also commented "obsessing over them" was among the things which helped her decide what she would later do for a living: combine visual and musical art "into an amazing magical blend". Another source of inspiration was dressing herself from a young age and making her own clothing from the age of 13. Zeta then became a user of softwares like Corel Draw and Photoshop during her teenage years, spending "hours doing different drawings and making color collages" which she liked to print. Her favourite subject while in school was computers. The artist affirmed being "fully trained" by the end of her senior year as well, hence why she never went to college to learn graphic design.

First years
After graduating from high school, Zeta enrolled on a fashion course for two months, but abandoned it because she was not "a fan of learning in an institutional environment". She then moved to the United States as an exchange student at the age of 19 and got her first graphic design job. In 2009, she was based in Berlin to exhibit her works in galleries from London and Moscow. The artist had also worked for Island and Big Beat Records by 2011, plus joined art collective Outland, which held various exhibitions and shows in Europe. She later met producer Jimmy Edgar and founded the label Ultramajic with them, eventually becoming part of the electronic music scene. Zeta then decided to prioritize her artistic efforts and launched an installation at Los Angeles' Standard Hotel in January 2015.

Commercial work
Still in 2015, the artist began to be represented by MAAVVEN, an agency sending weekly newsletters to advertise their launch at the time. One of them included a GIF image she designed and it was found by Coldplay's creative director Phil Harvey, who commissioned a piece for the band's seventh studio album A Head Full of Dreams. Zeta collaborated with them on a studio in London to make a three meters handmade collage with images from their childhood. The final result was edited into a kaleidoscope and a colorful version of the flower of life was added to the center, becoming the record's cover. Zeta has been working as Coldplay's art director ever since. She then made select designs for Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" on Witness: The Tour (2017–18).

Her partnership with the latter singer also included directing his performance of "Come Through and Chill" and "Sky Walker" at the 18th BET Awards. Similarly, she directed music videos for Bea Miller's "It's Not U It's Me" and "Feel Something". Resuming her activities with Coldplay, Zeta designed Everyday Life (2019) and earned a Best Recording Package nomination at the 63rd Grammy Awards. She then created visuals for their ninth album, Music of the Spheres (2021), accompanied by fellow artist Victor Scorrano. During the same period, Lil Nas X commissioned her work as art director for Montero and she was hired by Camila Cabello for the music video of "Don't Go Yet", which won her a Clio Award. In 2022, Zeta directed a video campaign for Carolina Herrera's ''Hot! Hot! Hot! fragrance, while 2023 saw her directing The Second Self'', a fashion film for Bimba y Lola.

Art exhibitions
Zeta was commissioned by Faena Art to make a large scale installation at Faena Hotel for Miami Art Week in 2021. Termed Hall of Visions, the project featured a sculpture named Hatch, which depicted a cracked egg and referenced a moment of "renaissance and realization". It has also been described as a tribute to madí and the history of art deco. Argentine newspaper Clarín praised the "triumphant arches", calling "back an hotel as much as a temple". Deepak Chopra held a meditation session in the installation, which ranked among the "must-see" works of the event. Hall of Visions was then animated into a video and split into five excerpts that were auctioned off as NFTs through a collaboration with marketplace Aorist.

In the following year, Zeta launched The Space of Variations (2022), her debut solo exhibition. The event was held at Los Angeles' Praz Delavallade and included "surrealistic landscapes, neo-metaphysical concepts, bold colors, and abstract shapes". Similarly, the works were inspired by quantum physics, "esoteric knowledge and the history of ideas which create alternative interpretations for reality". According to her interview for Vogue Spain, humanity is entering "the age of the sixth digital sense, but we cannot forget we are physical beings", which is why the exhibition focuses on the "connection between these two worlds". Animated pieces were part of the exhibition aside from the physical artworks as well.

She then took part in Miami Art Week once again by creating Future Transmutation (2022), a "large-scale sculptural garden" specifically for the path of "mathematics, astronomy and occult philosophies as creative devices". Presented in partnership with W Hotels and the Mambo Creatives agency, the setup was completely glazed in shades of purple, which is considered by Zeta "the color for transmutation", as it is right "between red and blue". In February 2023, she designed an installation called Doors of Perception, which was part of the Antipodes exhibition at Mexico City's Galerie Philia. It featured smooth surfaces and soft textures, being displayed alongside "rough and organically shaped" sculptures from Andrés Monnier. British magazine Dezeen described the setup as "a tribute to an ethereal and non-tangible space as her thoughts, represented and created on a digital world but [ultimately] materialized by rock". The artist also introduced her first collection of collectible furnitures, which included pieces such as tables and chess pieces.

Visual
Zeta's style is heavily influenced by her upbringing and an interest in ancient Egypt, cosmology and metaphysics. She has cited Studio Alchimia, Leonora Carrington, Hilma af Klint, René Magritte, Joan Miró and Mariko Mori as inspirations, with the third being a reference for the symbolic and the occult. Her works have been compared to Salvador Dalí as well. According to American magazine Flaunt, she adopts a "pastel postmodernist aesthetic". Moreover, the artist affirmed her visuals are defined by "minimalist, surrealist landscapes, her bold use of color, and of deconstructed shapes", coining the term "mystical futurism" to describe them.

While she prioritizes working with softwares because they make her feel "more comfortable and free when it's time to create", Zeta has used multiple mediums throughout her career, which includes drawing and scanning her own art, using photographs from flea markets and old books for collages, and producing her own resources from shapes to textures. Additionally, she commented wanting her works to be "immersive", so people can connect with "[their higher selves]". In 2022, the artist began to explore with furniture designs at her own house, "playing with Feng Shui's principles and creating surrealist pieces that have function, but also a subconscious meaning".

Musical
Following the release of Moments of Reality (2018), Zeta affirmed her sound was shaped by an obsession with postmodern furniture: "I was trying to redecorate my house while we were doing the music. All these lines crossed, and after a while, we just had all the songs for the album, and making the artwork was just so easy because it was part of it". The record has been described as an experimental, new-age release. Jimmy Edgar helped her produce the songs, which were influenced by Japanese musician Haruomi Hosono and pioneering synth-pop group Art of Noise while she tried to fulfill her desire of fitting art, music, and clothing "seamlessly" together into one cohesive aesthetic.

Discography

 * Moments of Reality (2018)