FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2025
Whitney Museum of American Art acquires two paintings from artist Gretchen Andrew
The acquisition from the artist’s series Facetune Portraits redefines portraiture in the age of algorithms and AI
(Left): Facetune Portrait – Universal Beauty, USA, 48″ x 24″, 2025 (Right): Facetune Portrait – Universal Beauty, Puerto Rico, 48″ x 24″, 2025
New York, NY – The Whitney Museum of American Art has acquired two paintings—“Facetune Portrait – Universal Beauty, USA,” and “Facetune Portrait – Universal Beauty, Puerto Rico”—by artist Gretchen Andrew.
Put forward for acquisition by Curator of Digital Art Christiane Paul, the acquisition committee voted, “enthusiastically and unanimously to acquire the two paintings.”
In Facetune Portraits, Gretchen uses custom robotics to physically paint popular “beautifying” AI-driven filters into oil paintings with subjects ranging from Miss Universe pageant contestants to ballet dancers. The resulting portraits reveal the tension between who we are and who AI and algorithms say we should be.
With the acquisition, these works join some of the most important art in American history in one of the defining museums of American art, establishing Facetune Portraits and its investigations of how filters, technology and AI are exerting their opinions on how we should look, increasingly compressing beauty into a single global standard and leaving invisible scars in its wake.
About Gretchen Andrew
Gretchen Andrew (b. 1988, Los Angeles) is a Utah-based artist who hacks systems of power with art, code, and glitter. Merging the painterly traditions she mastered during a five-year apprenticeship with British artist Billy Childish and the strategic technologies of her generation, Gretchen exposes and playfully disrupts the visual politics of power.
She first gained international recognition through her performative internet “vision boards,” which manipulated search engines to place her name among the top results for Frieze Los Angeles, the Turner Prize, and the cover of Artforum. These early works signaled her ongoing interest in reclaiming technology as an artistic medium and as a tool of institutional critique.
Gretchen’s acclaimed Facetune Portraits investigate the tension between human identity and technologically enforced ideals of beauty. In this complex process, she uses images of beauty pageant contestants to make visible the normally hidden process of digital filtering and AI-driven beauty modifications. The resulting works were described by The Standard as “chilling and poignant.” The ongoing series questions standardized beauty while reasserting the power of painterly gesture in an age of automation.
In 2025, the Whitney Museum of American Art unanimously acquired two works from her Facetune Portrait Universal Beauty series, marking a significant institutional milestone. Other collections include the 21c Museum Hotel, RFC Art Collection, Francisco Carolinum Linz, and the Monterey Museum of Art. Her work has been featured at Tate Modern, the V&A Museum, National Gallery X, House of Electronic Arts Basel, The Photographer’s Gallery London, and Fotomuseum Winterthur.
Gretchen has presented in leading art fairs worldwide, including Untitled Miami (where she received the 21c Museum Hotel Acquisition Award), Paris Photo (solo), Vienna Contemporary (solo), Expo Chicago, and Berlin Art Week (featured solo). Her practice has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Knight Foundation, and National Gallery X London, where she was an artist-in-residence.
Her work has been covered internationally by Artforum, Flash Art, Vogue, The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, KUNSTFORUM, CNN, Fortune, and Forbes. She was also featured on the cover of The Art Gorgeous, recognized as “one of the nicest people in the art world.”
Critic Jonathan Griffin has described Gretchen’s work as evoking “the Wild West possibilities of the internet.” Today, she continues to define a new model of the artist as both painter and systems engineer, reclaiming technology to redefine beauty, power, and influence in the digital age.
Website: https://www.gretchenandrew.com
Instagram: @gretchenandrew