'Facetune Portraits' by Gretchen Andrew is a new series that deploys generative art and oil painting. What happens when we take the beautifying AI algorithms popular on social media and bring them into the physical world and traditional portraiture? The resulting artworks reveal the tension between who we are and who AI says we should be.

For Berlin Art Week, Gretchen’s creative robotics facility migrates from London to Berlin, transforming HOLON’s space into a blended physical/digital studio. The algorithmic filters of facetuning, readily available on social media platforms and video conferencing tools (such as Instagram, TikTok, and Zoom's "Touch Up My Appearance"), promise a more "appealing" version of ourselves. Gretchen challenges this ideal by employing custom-built robots to physically apply these "beautifying" algorithms onto wet oil-painted paintings–portraits of Berlin-based influencers interviewed and photographed by the artist herself. As a result, viewers are exposed to a captivating exploration of the dissonance between our natural state and the constructed image we strive for. 

The project is curated and presented in collaboration between HOLON, a Berlin-based exhibition space, and fx(hash), a generative art platform. 

Technical collaboration: MatrLabs
Exhibition soundscape: Olivier Fröhlich