VIRTUAL BEAUTY
Somerset House, Terrace Rooms
23 July – 28 September 2025
Pay What You Can
https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/virtual-beauty
- Full list of contributing artists confirmed, with Somerset House Studio’s artist Sin Wai Kin, viral virtual influencer Lil Miquela, Arvida Byström, M.C. Abbott, María Buey González and Carl Olsson, Filip Ćustić, and Michael Wallinger announced to feature in exhibition, alongside ORLAN, Amalia Ulman, Hyungkoo Lee, Qualeasha Wood + more.
- Full schedule of public programme confirmed – including exclusive curator tours and insightful panel talks
Today, Somerset House announces the full list of contributing artists and the complete public programme for Virtual Beauty, including panel talks, exclusive curator tours, and special events.
As part of Somerset House’s 25th birthday programme, Virtual Beauty explores how digital culture is reshaping our understanding of beauty and identity - offering fresh perspective on an urgent subject.
Curated by Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, Mathilde Friis, and Bunny Kinney, and featuring over 20 international artists working across sculpture, photography, installation, and video, Virtual Beauty delves into the influence of artificial intelligence, social media, and digital avatars on self-image, and questions who holds the power to define beauty.
Joining previously announced artists such as ORLAN, Amalia Ulman, Hyungkoo Lee, Minne Atairu, Qualeasha Wood, Ben Cullen Williams and Isamaya Ffrench, Aleksander Nærbø, Ines Alpha, Bunny Kinney, Angelfire, Harriet Davey, Anan Fries, Andrew Thomas Huang and James Merry, and Frederik Heyman are:
- Sin Wai Kin, Somerset House Studios resident artist and Turner Prize nominee, who explores the power of storytelling, drag, and fantasy to reshape perceptions of identity in The Storyteller (2023).
- Lil Miquela, viral virtual influencer and Time magazine’s “25 Most Influential People on the Internet,” who radically blurs the lines between real and artificial as she models for fashion brands and advocates for causes online.
- Arvida Byström critically examines how AI is used to replicate beauty standards and perpetuates the sexualisation of the female body in her mixed media installation A Daughter Without A Mother (2022).
- M.C. Abbott, María Buey González & Carl Olsson, whose work Peak Face (2021) uses Augmented Reality to question if we’re entering a “post-facial” era where identity is no longer rooted in the human face.
- Filip Ćustić, a Spanish-Croatian multidisciplinary artist, who brings the hyperrealist sculpture pi(x)el (2022) – a body made of silicone and LED screens, inviting viewers to reconfigure its parts and explore fluidity across gender, race, and age.
- Michael Wallinger, an Austrian media artist, whose Iterative Body Synthesis (2022) investigates digital platforms and self-perception through a monitoring interface for “sisi.spec” – a virtual identity developed on Instagram.
In addition to these artists, a full public programme of events have been announced, which will include exclusive tours of the exhibition with curators Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, Mathilde Friis, and Bunny Kinney, plus a Relaxed Session – for anyone who would like to explore Virtual Beauty in a calm and comfortable environment.
In an age where digital self-curation is second nature, Virtual Beauty invites audiences to reflect on identity, empowerment, and the shifting boundaries of beauty in the post-internet era.
From social media filters and artificial intelligence to biometrics and dating apps, the works by emerging and established artists examine how we are more self-aware and calculated in the way we present ourselves publicly than ever before - and how these altered, enhanced, and filtered identities can both constrain and empower.
Co-Curators Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, Mathilde Friis, Bunny Kinney said:
“Virtual Beauty examines what ‘beauty’ means in the 21st century, and how technology and digital culture are shaping and changing this definition. We live in a world where digital self-curation is part of everyday life, and digitally native generations are coming of age.
“This exhibition highlights how questions of beauty are intrinsically linked to the screens and devices through which we view ourselves every day, and the altered, enhanced, or filtered identities we share via these devices.
“Virtual Beauty reconsiders who holds the power to define conventions of beauty today and the very definition of human identity. “
Dr Cliff Lauson, Director of Exhibitions at Somerset House said:
"On our 25th birthday, we are very pleased to be presenting such a timely and relatable exhibition during our summer season.
“Virtual Beauty takes an in-depth look at the complex relationship between digital technologies and the aesthetics of beauty. The artists and designers included propose highly original and unexpected takes on the subject, asking us to reconsider how we see ourselves and each other both online and IRL."
PUBLIC PROGRAMME
Virtual Beauty will be accompanied by a series of tours, talks and events which include:
Panel Discussion: Curating the Self – Technology, Beauty, and Identity in the Digital Age with Mathilde Friis, Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, Daniella Loftus and Ellen Atlanta
Thursday 24 July 19.00 (£10/ £7.50 concession)
Screening Room, South Wing
Exclusive tour of the exhibition with co-curator Bunny Kinney
Thursday 31 July 19.00 (£8/£6 concession)
Terrace Rooms & Courtyard Room 2, South Wing
Exclusive tour of the exhibition with co-curator Mathilde Friis
Thursday 14 August 19.00 (£8/£6 concession)
Terrace Rooms & Courtyard Room 2, South Wing
Relaxed Session – for anyone who would like to explore the exhibition in a calm and comfortable environment.
Friday 22 August 10.00-11.30 (Booking Required – Free)
Terrace Rooms, South Wing
Exclusive tour of the exhibition with co-curator Gonzalo Herrero Delicado Saturday 6 September 17.00 (£8/£6 concession)
Terrace Rooms & Courtyard Room 2, South Wing
For more information and to book public programme events, please visit https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/virtual-beauty
DIGITAL PROGRAMME
Developed in response to Virtual Beauty, the digital programme will feature a short documentary film, which will be presented on Channel, Somerset House’s online curated space for art, ideas and the artistic process. The film will be accompanied by an editorial piece from the Virtual Beauty curators, which further unpicks some of the main themes from the exhibition.
VIRTUAL BEAUTY DOCUMENTARY + EDITORIAL CONTENT
This 10-minute feature includes contributions from ORLAN, Ines Alpha, and Qualeasha Wood – all artists who experiment with the body and technology. Exploring questions around power, objecthood vs subjecthood, and the tensions between the physical world and the digital world, this short film investigates what it means to be the maker of one’s own image in a post-internet era.
Virtual Beauty co-curator Mathilde Friis will additionally explore key themes and conceptual ideas from the exhibition in a creative editorial, which will sit alongside the documentary on Channel
SHOP
A Virtual Beauty poster, postcards and related books from the exhibition will be available from the East Wing Shop.
Shop opening hours vary - all products are also available online at https://www.somersethouseshop.com/
Contributing Artists
The full list of contributing artists to Virtual Beauty are ORLAN, Amalia Ulman, Hyungkoo Lee, Minne Atairu, Qualeasha Wood, Sin Wai Kin, M.C. Abbott, María Buey González and Carl Olsson, Lil Miquela, Filip Ćustić, Ben Cullen Williams and Isamaya Ffrench, Aleksander Nærbø, Ines Alpha, Bunny Kinney, Angelfire, Harriet Davey, Anan Fries, Andrew Thomas Huang and James Merry , Frederik Heyman, Arvida Byström, and Michael Wallinger
ADDITIONAL DETAILS OF ARTIST WORKS
Virtual Beauty interrogates the impact of technology beyond the digital realm to explore its influence on physical bodies. Pioneering works include ORLAN's pre-social media performance Omniprésence (1993), in which the artist live-streamed her facial aesthetic surgery to challenge western beauty ideals, and Amalia Ulman’s iconic series Excellences & Perfections, questioning the authenticity of social media platforms. Anan Fries further investigates the representation of the body through her work, challenging the social conventions around heteronormative pregnancy by reconsidering the womb as a fashionable and commercial bag in Ecto Bag (2024).
Virtual Beauty highlights the different technologies at play in shaping the digital landscape and its consequence on identity. Qualeasha Wood’s tapestries combine cybernetic and analogue processes that explore race, sexuality and gender as they relate to the black femme body, and Minne Atairu offers a critical approach to the portrayal of black identity and bias in images generated using data trained AI-powered algorithms. Notions of identity are further explored by Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee in his distorted human portrait, a work challenging self-perception and responding to standardised definitions of beauty. The effects of body dysmorphia and male beauty standards are investigated by Aleksander Nærbø through the lens of online dating culture, and Ben Cullen Williams and Isamaya Ffrench showcase work that uses machine learning and generative software to create altered portraits, raising questions about artificial intelligence's perception of beauty.
The possibilities afforded by technology in constructing alternative identities beyond human boundaries are spotlighted within Ines Alpha's interactive installation delving into the concept of ‘virtual makeup’ and cyborgs, and works by Harriet Davey and Angelfire explore the proliferation of alternative virtual identities in digital spaces through avatars. Andrew Thomas Huang’s series, made in collaboration with James Merry, Björk Virtual Avatars (2016) returns to Somerset House after debuting for the 2016 show Björk Digital, presenting a series of other-worldly avatars of the singer. Virtual Beauty concludes with Frederik Heyman's powerful Virtual Embalming (2018), prompting reflection on how individuals wish to be remembered in the digital realm after death, with a virtual shrine from fashion and culture icon including Michèle Lamy.
The exhibition, a project initiated by HEK (House of Electronic Arts, Basel), is co-curated by Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, Mathilde Friis, Bunny Kinney and supported by Claire Catterall, Senior Curator at Somerset House.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Dates: 23 July – 28 September 2025
Tickets: Pay What You Can. On sale here
Press enquiries: press@somersethouse.org.uk
Press Images: High-res images here
Website: www.somersethouse.org.uk
Somerset House Facebook: www.facebook.com/SomersetHouse
Somerset House Twitter & Instagram: @SomersetHouse
ABOUT SOMERSET HOUSE
Step Inside, Think Outside
As the home of cultural innovators, Somerset House is a site of origination, with a cultural programme offering alternative perspectives on the biggest issues of our time. In 2025, Somerset House celebrates its 25th birthday, marking its extraordinary transformation to one of London’s best-loved cultural spaces and home to one of the largest creative communities in the UK. We are a place of joy and discovery, where everyone is invited to Step Inside and Think Outside
From our historic site in the heart of London, we work globally across art, creativity, business, and non-profit, nurturing new talent, methods and technologies. Our resident community of creative enterprises, arts organisations, artists and makers makes us a centre of ideas, with most of our programme home-grown.
We sit at the meeting point of artistic and social innovation, bringing worlds and minds together to create surprising and often magical results. Our spirit of constant curiosity and counter perspective is integral to our history and key to our future. Drawing from Somerset House’s unique resident community, the digital platform will showcase a rolling programme of exclusive commissions, documentaries, films, podcasts, talks, interactive works and editorial content
ABOUT VIRTUAL BEAUTY CURATORS
GONZALO HERRERO DELICADO
Gonzalo is a London-based independent curator, educator, and architect whose work examines the impact of the climate crisis and digital technologies on the world through design, architecture, and art practices. He is an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art and this year, curated the Digital section of Art Dubai. Before that, he served as Director of the Ecocity World Summit 2023 held at the Barbican, and a Design Fellow at the University of Cambridge. From 2016 to 2021, he was the Curator of the Architecture Programme at the Royal Academy of Arts in London where he curated exhibitions such as Eco-Visionaries (2019-2020) and the series Invisible Landscapes (2018-2019) among many others. Gonzalo has held curatorial positions at Serpentine, Design Museum and the Architecture Foundation in London. His extensive curatorial portfolio includes exhibitions and projects for HEK, Museum of the Future, Mies van der Rohe Foundation, and Arquia Foundation. He has co-edited three books Archipelagic Void (Serpentine/Koenig, 2024), Conversations on a Planet in a State of Emergency (RA, 2019) and Fear and Love: Reactions to a Complex World (Phaidon, 2016).
MATHILDE FRIIS
Mathilde is a visual anthropologist and PhD candidate at Northumbria University. Her research and work explore issues around sexuality, feminism and gender. Her recent curatorial projects include the group exhibitions Purity & Danger (2024) at Guts Projects and Working Girls! (2024) at Gallery 46, both in London, explored the intersections of art, sex work, labour, and the market. Additional projects include the solo presentation Sketches by Isabella Benshimol (2024) and the group show Oops…Something Went Wrong (2021) in collaboration with Goldsmiths University. Previously, Mathilde worked at Gagosian, London. She holds an MA in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh and an MA in Arts & Cultural Management from King’s College London.
BUNNY KINNEY
Bunny is a British-Canadian filmmaker, creative director, and consultant. At present, he is the global executive creative director of Dazed Studios. Formerly creative director of arts and culture film platform NOWNESS, where he led teams in London, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and Editorial Director of Dazed Media, where he launched the print magazine and platform project Dazed Beauty in 2018, Kinney also previously worked at fashion magazine i-D starting in 2014. A graduate of the creative writing Masters programme at the University of Oxford, as well as School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, where he received an MA in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory, Kinney's work explores key themes of youth identity, gender and sexuality as it can be understood within the broader field of communication. He co-curated Charles Jeffrey: The Lore of Loverboy exhibition at Somerset House in 2024. He lives and works in London.