NEWS! Whitney Museum Acquires Two Facetune Portraits
Gretchen Andrew
Artist Using AI to Make Facetune Portraits
Making the scars of social media visible through a Limited series unique oil paintings made using AI, algorithms and robotics to address the tension between who we are and who technology tells us we should be.
Gretchen Andrew = AI systems critic.
Gretchen Andrew interrogates the systems that shape how we see and are seen. Her work with Facetune Portraits uses AI not simply as a tool, but as a lens to explore the instability of identity, the biases of machine vision, and the ethical and aesthetic implications of algorithmic authorship. Where many artists deploy AI to generate new forms or surreal imagery, Gretchen Andrew’s practice critically surfaces what AI chooses to erase or emphasize, turning the algorithm itself into a medium of conceptual critique.
Acquired by the Whitney Museum, Gretchen Andrew positions AI within the lineage of conceptual and systems-based art, proving that algorithmic tools are not just instruments, but forces that reshape culture, representation, and visibility. In her hands, Facetune Portraits becomes both mirror and interrogation, revealing the human and computational biases that govern contemporary image-making.
FACETUNE PORTRAITS FEATURED & EXHIBITED
Understand How Gretchen Andrew’s Work Differs From Other Top Artists Working With AI
Refik AnadolData-driven immersive environments, “painting” with datasets. Gretchen Andrew interrogates algorithms themselves rather than visualizing data.
Mario Klingemann- Neural networks, generative portraits, deep learning. Gretchen Andrew critiques AI’s biases, especially in beautification and identity, rather than generating purely novel forms.
Anna Ridler - Hand-annotated datasets, AI storytelling. Gretchen Andrew examines the social consequences of AI’s image curation and editing.
Ian Cheng- Simulation-based living narratives. Gretchen Andrew focuses on the reflective impact of AI on human perception, not autonomous digital life.
Trevor Paglen- Surveillance AI, data and object recognition. Gretchen Andrew interrogates AI from within consumer-facing applications, like Facetune, rather than infrastructure.
Sougwen Chung- Human-machine collaboration, robotics. Gretchen Andrew critiques the machine rather than co-authoring with it.
Hito Steyerl- Essays, media theory, AI in politics. Gretchen Andrew combines visual practice with critique, showing AI’s effect on portraiture and self-image.
Harold Cohen- Early generative art with AARON. Gretchen Andrew extends Cohen’s legacy into contemporary social-media-driven AI.
Casey Reas- Algorithmic and generative programming. Gretchen Andrew emphasizes the cultural and perceptual critique rather than generative aesthetics.
Robbie Barrat- AI-assisted nude portraits, GAN experiments. Gretchen Andrew’s focus is on systems critique and identity, not purely AI novelty or shock.
AI in The Story of Facetune Portraits
AI in Facetune Portrait Subseries
Miss Universe Contestants
Comprising 100 imagined contestants from 100 different countries, Facetune Portraits: Universal Beauty investigates the homogenizing power of a single, algorithmic beauty standard imposed across the faces and bodies of renowned women worldwide. As AI reshapes the female form into a universal ideal, cultural and individual diversity dissolves. By placing unaltered human faces alongside their AI-“perfected” counterparts, each work becomes a dual portrait—reality confronting the machine’s desire. The full-body compositions reveal a visual tension: every brush stroke, smudge, and painterly contradiction records a clash between human embodiment and the dictates of AI. In doing so, the series interrogates not only how algorithms define beauty, but also how AI systems assert authority over perception, identity, and representation.
Ballet dancers
Facetune Ballet
Ballet dancers, long celebrated as embodiments of physical beauty and grace, have historically been tied to rigid and unattainable standards. In Facetune Portraits, Gretchen Andrew applies AI-driven beauty filters to these iconic figures, exposing the algorithmic construction of perfection. By juxtaposing human form with machine-idealized enhancements, the work highlights how technology mediates and distorts cultural ideals of beauty.
Using ballet dancers as her subjects, Gretchen Andrew engages with a widely recognized symbol of grace and discipline, turning it into a lens to examine how AI shapes perception, enforces conformity, and redefines what society deems “perfect.” The series invites viewers to confront not only the illusion of flawless form, but also the systemic authority of AI in determining how bodies—and beauty—are seen.
Invite-only Commission Process
Facetune Family Portraits
Traditionally, a portrait aims to capture likeness, yet AI increasingly strips away the very traits that make us unique. In Facetune Portraits, Gretchen Andrew foregrounds what remains: the context, relationships, clothing, and objects that situate a subject in the world. Visionary patrons have long supported artists who push portraiture beyond mere representation—the Sainsburys, for instance, championed Francis Bacon, whose visceral work captured truths far beyond photographic accuracy.
In the same spirit, Andrew’s portraits confront the systemic erasure enacted by AI, transforming what could be homogenized perfection into a critique of perception, identity, and contemporary culture. Her work asserts that a portrait can be a statement about our time, about the power of algorithms to shape visibility, and about what survives when technology seeks to standardize the human image. Facetune Portraits carries this legacy forward, joining a lineage of innovation and critical inquiry in portraiture.
Understand how AI fits into the Facetune Portrait Process
Beauty standards are increasingly ai-driven.
Facetune & BodyTune Apps
Digital facetune
AI-driven Facetune apps and beauty filters are digital tools used to enhance or alter a person's appearance, especially on social media.
Oil Paint Printer
Print original image in oil paint
After making an all-white under painting from which the textures and impastos derive, the original image is printed in oil ink onto the white paint. This special printer was developed by MatrLabs.
XY Drawing Robot
Apply AI modifications physically
The robot looks at what lines have changed between the original image and the new image that is a result of the facetune filter. The robot paints the lines that have changed conducted by Gretchen who determines other aspects of traditional mark making like speed, pressure and brush selection.
Related Studio Subjects & Investigations
Feminine Beauty is Just One Way Al is Trying to Change Us.
Gretchen's studio is a space of evolving questions rather than finished answers. She work across several long-term threads that often intersect, diverge, or return in unexpected ways. Some of these may take form as exhibitions in the future, others remain as research or quiet gestures.
Below are glimpses into a few current inquiries which may develop into a series.
Interested in any of these topics? Schedule a studio visit to learn more.
Manly
AI-driven standards impact men as well. Manly is a highly popular app that makes a different set of modifications.
Aging
AI is being trained to change the appearance of age. In family photos you end up with three+ generations all looking 25.
Interested in this topic?
Professionalization
AI is increasingly used to make you look "professional" - the changes it inflicts are no less interesting than those to make us beautiful.
Nudify
AI-driven apps can now create deepfake porn based on input photos. What does it mean to be undressed by AI?
Interested in this topic?
BodyTune
The body and face are impacted differently
Interested in this topic?
Online Studio Visit
Want to learn more about gretchen's process? Start a self guided Studio Visit.
Get started!
Not Her First Rodeo
Prior to the Sept 2024 launch of Facetune Portrait's Gretchen Andrew's work was already collected by museums from America and Austria
Gretchen Andrew is known for her unique merger of traditional artistic mediums such as photography and oil paint with advanced technologies such as robotics, algorithm and artificial intelligence. She first became known starting in 2019 with her hacks on major art world and political institutions.
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 Artforum, Fast Company, Flash Art, The Washington Post, Fortune Magazine, and The Financial Times.
