Key Takeaways:

• Virtual Beauty explores how technology transforms beauty and selfhood.
• The exhibition highlights empowerment through digital self-expression.
• It challenges beauty brands to embrace inclusivity in the digital age.

Somerset House, a historic arts and cultural center in London, offers visitors a new lens on how beauty, technology, and identity intersect in its latest exhibition, Virtual Beauty. Visitors experience a thought-provoking exploration of identity and beauty while examining how technology, from AI influencers to camera-phone filters, shapes the perception of ourselves and the world.

“Some of these possibilities can impact our self-perceptions in negative ways, but I don’t think Virtual Beauty explicitly aims to take a negative approach,” said Bunny Kinney, Co-Curator of Virtual Beauty. “There is something wondrous about the infinite possibility of self-invention that technology allows for, and this is the spirit we aim to capture through the work presented here.”

The exhibition features a diverse roster of artists who interrogate traditional beauty norms through radical and experimental practices— bringing together an international lineup of artists whose works span performance, digital media, textiles, and immersive installations, all analyzing how beauty is constructed and consumed in the age of technology.