Gretchen Andrew uses an insider’s knowledge of information systems to create witty, high-octane artworks that expose the holes in what the internet knows. The self-described “SEO artist” and “Internet Imperialist” worked at Google in Silicon Valley before turning her attention to art, spending four years apprenticing for the British provocateur-painter Billy Childish in London. Today, Gretchen’s best known for her vision boards—paintings and installations covered with a hodgepodge of photos, stickers, ribbon, glitter, and more—and for internet-based works that blur the line between performance and hacking. She regularly uses SEO techniques that businesses use to propel their sites to the top of Google searches to manipulate the standing of her own work, often to humorous effect. Gretchen’s work has been exhibited in London, Monterey, Berlin and Linz, but contrary to what she once tricked Google into believing, she has never won the Turner Prize.
