Portraiture and AI: blurring the line between truth and fabrication

Blending old-world aesthetics with contemporary commentary, Millie Snell’s Truth & Artifice reimagines Baroque portraiture through the lens of artificial intelligence. Drawing from AI-generated images, Snell crafts fictional characters rendered in a historically familiar style—blurring the line between truth and fabrication, and questioning how art has long been used to obscure reality under the guise of beauty or authority. 

Her work interrogates how visual storytelling can both reveal and distort, drawing compelling parallels between propaganda of the past and digital deceptions of the present. 

Millie’s passion for the visual arts spans mediums, and she has exhibited across multiple platforms including the Bay of Fires Youth Art Prize and the Henry Jones Art Prize. Her practice this year has focused on mastering realism through oil paint, influenced by Renaissance and Baroque masters. 

Reflecting on her ArtRage selection, she said, “It’s incredibly special to be part of this statewide community. ArtRage has always been a goal for me.” 

Next year, Millie plans to study Art History at the University of Melbourne while continuing her own creative exploration.  

Her advice: 

“Stay curious. Try new techniques, visit galleries, and immerse yourself in the world of art whenever you can.”