Gretchen Andrew

Gretchen Andrew, who famously “hacked” Frieze LA in 2019, is, in conjunction with Gazelli Art House’s Gazell.io, unleashing a new series of work that actively reprograms the artificial intelligence underlying the global internet and offers viewers a timely, virtual engagement with art as we observe social distancing. These new works, referred to as “vision boards,” appear as top search results through her unique process of using the failures of the internet to make her dreams come true.

AI is inherently backwards-looking and susceptible to being reprogrammed by anyone with basic knowledge of the internet’s structure. Gretchen exploits it, rewriting existing representations of reality with her own by using a search engine’s own rules against itself to fulfil her desires. For example, using the internet’s inability to parse desire, she turns her desire to be on the cover of Artforum into a reality (hint: Google “cover of Artforum” and select images). Gretchen’s vision boards' feminine and trivialised materials clash with the male-dominated worlds of AI, programming, and political control in the digital age. 

This May, Gretchen will be an artist-in-residence at Gazelli Art House’s Gazell.io, featuring her vision boards and AI-reprogramming internet manipulations. She will host a series called In Her Image during the month, hosting conversations with leading women like Penny Slinger and Penny Woolcock. All conversations will be hosted and archived on GAZELL.iO.

Released week of May 4th, 2020

Penny Woolcock – Filmmaker

Sarah Ivy – Filmmaker / Boxer

Ema McKie – Artist/Model/Mother

Released week of May 11, 2020

Tracy Bartley – Director at R.B. Kitaj Studio Project

Lindsay Thompson – Animator

Niki Montazaran – Hollywood agent

Released week of May 28, 2020

Lauren Suen – Inventor

Penny Slinger – Artist

Susan Sherrick – Dealer/ Gallerist

Susan Sherrick is currently the Director at 1301PE Gallery in Los Angeles. She has worked as the assistant to the Chair of the Art and Architecture Department, Yve-Alain Bois, at Harvard University, as well as the following galleries and art consultant firm: Marian Goodman, David Zwirner, Fraenkel Gallery, Howard Greenberg and The Heller Group. In 2015 she opened her own gallery in Nashville: Sherrick & Paul. They were the first contemporary art gallery in Nashville to exhibit international artists including: Marcel Dzama, Katy Grannan, William Eggleston, Nick Goss, Barry McGee, Malick Sidibé, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Wendy White to name a few. Sherrick & Paul represented the Eggleston Artistic Trust.

Lauren Suen – Inventor

Lauren Suen is a marketing professional who has worked in the tech industry for nearly 10 years. She grew up in the heart of Silicon Valley, where embracing change was the norm, and innovation was encouraged. In 2018, her love for travel and desire to work overseas led to several moves across Asia, and more recently, Hong Kong and Toronto, where she currently splits her time. It was during this period of working fulltime, traveling frequently, and maintaining an active lifestyle, that she experienced a problem that she knew was common, but for some reason was rarely discussed. This led to the creation of Spare- a women’s underwear company that provides a discreet and portable solution for after a leak has already happened.

Stephanie Quintana

Stephanie L. Quintana – am known as “Elle” by most of her friends- graduated from UCLA School of Fine Arts. She is a creative director and photographer. A native Los Angeleno, she is currently living and working in San Francisco.

“Growing up in Los Angeles in the 90’s I was surrounded by the stories and storytellers of Hollywood. I wanted to be part of that history, and part of the stories that shape the way we view ourselves and others. Throughout my childhood and early adulthood I very rarely saw these stories depict me, depict women that were not stereotypically beautiful, conventional or easily identifiable. Not seeing myself reflected in the cultural narrative gave me a sense of not being worth the attention of culture as a whole. I realized the only way to change this was to be in creative control and to create narratives that are inclusive of all people. I realized that you can not change ‘the gaze’ unless you are ‘the gazer’. The visual stories we tell and those bodies we use to tell them become the heros and heroines of our daily lives. I never want another person to look in the mirror and think they could not be part of the dream.”

Mariannie Z. Santiago

Sarah Allen – Mozilla Foundation

Hi, I’m Sarah I design convenings for the global community to connect and collaborate with each other using the principles of Open, movement organising, and federated design. These convenings empower the community to raise their most pressing issues facing their online lives today and build solutions with other participants.

Its important to gather participants from a wide range of disciples, geographies, age groups, ethnicity, and cultures to ensure we have many perspectives to keep the web open, free, and healthy for all.

I am the wrangler of the wranglers for MozFest. Favorite working open project So many, so hard to choose….I do love and appreciate all the hard work, design and beautiful art that goes into Artist Open Web – a project spanning three years curated by Luca Damiani and Irini Papadimitriou. I love the expanse of storytelling through art, and Artist Open Web captures the development of the studio, the work and the aspiration for sharing the story of Internet health across different mediums and art pieces.

Outside of Mozilla Love exploring new cities on foot, stopping along the way at hipster coffee shops, independent breweries, and trying all the local food delicacies. I make a decent cup of tea, am a massive Whitney Houston fan and love a good book club with my mates in London <3

Niki Montazaran – Hollywood agent

Born and raised in New York, Niki Montazaran was first introduced to the entertainment industry while attending NYU where she created a major aptly named, “The Intersect of Art and Commerce”. While remaining ardent in her studies, she rotated between various internships including ABC Entertainment, NBC Entertainment and Paradigm Talent Agency.

After graduation, Niki began working full-time in the Paradigm mailroom while also keeping two part-time jobs, often working seven days a week. From the mailroom she quickly rose through the ranks first as an assistant in the book-to-film group and later moved to LA to become a Motion Picture Literary Coordinator.

In 2015 Niki joined ICM as an agent and has since gone on to represent clients such as Pulitzer nominated playwright Theresa Rebeck (who also wrote the upcoming spy thriller film 355 starring Jessica Chastain), Zam & Cohen (co-creators of FUED on FX), Hayley Schore & Roshan Sethi (co-creators of THE RESIDENT on Fox) and Emmy winning director Rudy Valdez (THE SENTENCE).

As the daughter of Iranian immigrants, one of Niki Montazaran’s core tenets as a Motion Picture Literary Agent is to represent minorities and help them tell underrepresented stories.

Sarah Ivy – Filmmaker / Boxer

Sarah Ivy is an award-winning producer and director based in Venice Beach, CA. She began her career in development at Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Television and MTV Films. After working in the production office for the CBS drama Criminal Minds and assisting top-level executives at Warner Bros., she went on to become Vice President and a Producer at Master Key Productions where she produced international unit shoots for network and cable television shows including Scandal, Covert Affairs, Royal Pains in addition to numerous pilots and ran business affairs for the company.

Her first feature documentary, Do You Dream in Color?, garnered much acclaim and numerous awards on the festival circuit. For the film, she was recipient of the NYWIFT Loreen Arbus Disability Awareness Award and the 2017 Jacob Bolotin Award in recognition achievements of exemplary significance to the blind for her directing work. The film is being distributed by Uncork’d Entertainment.

Sarah is currently in post-production on her second feature film, Sk8 Girlz, a documentary following an all-female skateboard team based out of Orange County, CA.

She is a graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Production. Additionally, she remains an active advocate for women in film as a part of the Film Fatales, Women in Media and the Alliance of Women Directors.

When not making movie magic, you can find her at the gym and in the ring where she is a competitive amateur boxer.

Tracy Bartley – Director at R.B. Kitaj Studio Project

Tracy Bartley holds degrees in painting and art conservation. She met R.B. Kitaj while a Project Coordinator at the Getty Conservation Institute. In 1999 she left the Getty to be his full-time Studio Manager and Assistant. Upon his death in 2007, she was named Director of the R.B. Kitaj Estate. With experience in estate planning, studio management, and the formation and operation of artist endowed foundations, she currently consults with artists and estates around issues of legacy. Most recently Tracy has become an Associate of the Appraisers Association of America, having completed the the Appraisal Institute of America’s Comprehensive Appraisal Studies Program.

Ema McKie – Artist/Model/Mother

Ema McKie grew up in CO and was introduced to abstract art and architecture by her father, a builder and sculptor. She spent her childhood traveling to see the works of Andy Goldsworthy and Hundertwasser with him. In her early early years she worked as a gallerist and studied under a variety of artists in New England. In 2014 she moved to Boulder to work in a print and framing shop to learn the trade. Shortly after she moved to Los Angeles where she now spends her time painting and modeling.

In between paintings Ema wanders the streets taking photo references of buildings and shadows to use in future work.

Lindsay Thompson – Animator

Lindsay Thompson is a 3D character animator who’s worked in film and video games for 13 years. She’s animated on such projects as Avatar, Wreck-It Ralph, Marvel’s Avengers and the recent record-breaking Playstation 4 video-game Spider-Man. She’s also an avid lover of jigsaw puzzles and camping. 

Penny Woolcock – Filmmaker

Penny Woolcock is a director and writer working across
documentary, television fiction, feature films and opera. She has a
particular interest in life on the margins.

She researched and street-cast fictions about the marginal
economy in Leeds: Tina goes shopping and Tina Takes a Break.
Her feature films include The Principles of Lust, Mischief Night and
Exodus. Her feature film 1 Day about urban gang life was
researched and street cast in inner city Birmingham. This led to
One Mile Away, a documentary following a peace process
between the two big gangs in the city. She is the lead director on
three seasons of Ackley Bridge (2017/2018/2019) a prime time
Channel 4 drama series.

Her film opera, John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer was
followed by stage productions of John Adams’ Doctor Atomic and
Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers for the English National Opera, the
Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Los Angeles Opera
house. The Passion by JS Bach was staged in Manchester in 2016
performed by The Sixteen and Streetwise Opera who work with
homeless people.

Her documentaries include Going to the Dogs, The Wet House
and On The Streets. She has made two archive films From the
Sea to the Land Beyond and Out of the Rubble.
Her immersive installation Utopia showed at the Camden
Roundhouse in August 2015. Fantastic Cities was her major solo
show at Modern Art Oxford 2018/9.

Awards include the Michael Powell Award for best British film, a
Grammy for Doctor Atomic, the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award,
the Grierson Trustees Award, the Prix Italia, BAFTA nominations,
Banff Jury Prize, Two Royal Television Society awards for drama
and documentaries, Sheffield DocFest Inspiration Award, Women
in Film and Television Achievement of the Year and the Prix Italia.

Conversations with women who build the future in their own image

Interview series to coincide with Gretchen Andrew’s “vision boards” that bend the internet’s artificial intelligence to her desires.

Full-length interviews are archived here but were shared in their primary form as a series 15 second and 1-minute clips on Instagram.

More about In Her Image

The thesis behind these conversations is that by being a unique self the work these women do is inherently feminist. Feminism here is not a set of values or a defined political lense, it’s themselves, being a woman, making decisions, making and reshaping the world.

I first started thinking about this when I read Miranda July, Nell Zink, and Ottessa Moshfegh. These women are nothing short of brilliant and their books are so…weird. Weird in the best way. Because the voices within these works are so unique, so distinct to the authors, I started thinking about each as a feminine and feminist literature. Or I think about Billie Eilish and us being increasingly in a moment when women can be celebrated for being themselves, not squeezing ourselves into the molds made by John Steinbeck or Elvis Prestley.

I don’t so much ask how being a woman has impacted their work, I ask who they are, what they care about, and how that creates the worlds they work in. In a way, the same thing.

We also explore how themes in my work play out in their own lives and industries.

Released week of May 4th, 2020

Gretchen Andrew

In The Studio - Episode 1: Materials “unboxing” (15 seconds)

Gretchen Andrew

In The Studio - Episode 2: IRL (15 seconds)

Gretchen Andrew

In The Studio - Episode 3: Conceptual (30s)

Gretchen Andrew

In The Studio - Episode 4: Materials (15s)