The summer show is part of the institution’s 25th birthday programme
Over the last 25 years Somerset House has delivered many innovative and impactful exhibitions, and that trend is continuing in 2025 with the Virtual Beauty exhibition this summer. Running from July to September, the show will explore how digital culture and technologies have defined beauty today, and how gender, identity, and sexuality exist and are presented in the post-internet area.
Virtual Beauty features works from over 20 artists, including ORLAN, Harriet Davey, Amalia Ulman, Minnie Atairu, Ben Cullen Williams, Isamaya Ffrench, Frederik Heyman and Andrew Thomas Huang. Expect to see AI-generated portraits; interactive installations; a performance art piece featuring a live-stream of facial aesthetic surgery; tapestries that combine cybernetic and analogue processes; virtual avatars of Björk; and virtual shrines that explore how individuals wish to be remembered digitally after death.
The artworks on display reference everything from social media filters to dating apps, examining how digital self-curation has become a part of everyday life, and how definitions of beauty have shifted as technology has become more accessible.
Speaking about the exhibition, 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.”
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Key Information
Dates | Weds 23rd July – Sun 28th September 2025
Address | Strand, London WC2R 1LA
For more information | somersethouse.org.uk