Gretchen Andrew: Facetune Portraits
On the occasion of SF Art Week 2024, Gray Area is pleased to announce an exhibition of newly commissioned oil paintings by Gretchen Andrew.
Facetune Portraits contemplates the near-ubiquitous contemporary practice of digital, AI-enabled body modification. Weaving conceptual and practical threads from traditions in both generative art and traditional portraiture, Gretchen Andrew creates oil paintings that examine changing perceptions of beauty in the algorithmic age.
Algorithmic filters—readily available on social media platforms and video communication tools—promise a more ‘appealing’ version of ourselves. Gretchen challenges this ideal by employing custom-built robotics to physically apply ‘beautifying’ algorithms on to wet oil paintings.
For her portraits at Gray Area, Gretchen conducted sittings with prominent Bay Area figures. After painting each subject’s likeness by hand, Gretchen uses her custom robotics to transform the image—applying a machinic stroke to paint algorithmic ‘beautifying’ changes to the subject’s appearance. The resulting Facetune Portraits render visible the dissonance between our natural state and the technologically-perfected image, coexisting uncomfortably on the canvas.
Each unique, one-of-one painting is available for sale. Please direct all inquiries to [email protected].
About the Artist
Gretchen Andrew
Gretchen Andrew manipulates systems of power with art, glitter and code. She is best known for her playful hacks on major art world and political institutions, including Frieze, The Whitney Biennial, Artforum, The Turner Prize, and The Next American President. In these digital performances she reimagines reality with art and desire. She does this by making assemblage “vision boards” that she programs to become top internet search results. The feminine and trivialized materials of her vision boards purposefully clash with the male-dominated worlds of AI, programming, and political control they also operate within. In Gretchen’s new Facetune Portrait series the artist uses custom robotics to physically apply popular “beautifying” AI algorithms into oil paintings. She trained in London with the artist Billy Childish from 2012-2017. In 2018 the V&A Museum released her book Search Engine Art. Gretchen’s work has recently been featured in Fast Company, Flash Art, The Washington Post, Fortune Magazine, Monopol, Wirtschaftswoche, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, and The Financial Times.
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