The Freaky World of Beth Frey

Canadian Artist Beth Frey has created a fantastical freaky world populated with cartoonish nightmarish characters which is very popular here at The Freaky.

Mixing drawing, painting, video, and sculpture with A.I., Beth Frey has created a totally unique set of images that contain her trademark lurid absurdist humour. 

Frey has gathered together these freaky images at her Instagram account The Sentient Muppet Factory. 

Frey uses DALL-E, an art artificial intelligence software tool that has been trained on 250 million images.  DALL-E was designed to be a cross between surrealist painter Salvador Dali and the Pixar robot Wall-E. It’s an intoxicating mix of ideas and with Frey at the controls it is producing memorable images that look like a nightmarish children’s show. Such as the well-dressed Cyclops news reader. Or the waxy Mrs Doubtfire with her brood of children.

Frey says her images have been inspired by her experiences of being a woman. 

“Creating grotesque bodies is a strategy to me. As a woman, you are constantly being subjected to a desired, male gaze. I wanted to create untethered bodies that fell outside the norm, and as such, were liberated from that traditional gaze. While the paintings might look a bit nightmare-esque, in fact, I consider them to be utopian.”

Artist Beth Frey.

It is only in the past few years that Artificial Intelligence tools have been utilized by artists. Frey first worked in watercolours but working with A.I, she has discovered a whole new playground.

“I’ve always dreamed of realizing a subversive, psychotic children’s show, and with this photorealistic tool, I was able to create absurd visuals to go with my vision.”