Es Devlin has launched *A National Portrait*, a participatory digital artwork at the National Portrait Gallery in London, created in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture Lab. Opening on 14 May 2026 and running until 27 October 2026, the project invites anyone in the UK to upload a photograph of themselves via an online platform, where it is transformed into an animated digital portrait inspired by Devlin's charcoal and chalk drawing practice. These portraits are displayed collectively in the gallery's History Makers space, and participants receive a downloadable digital edition of their own portrait. The project is the result of three years of collaborative research between Devlin and Google Arts & Culture Lab.
This matters because *A National Portrait* reimagines portraiture as a shared, evolving process rather than a fixed representation, directly responding to divisive conversations about national identity. By allowing thousands of people to co-author a single artwork displayed in a major national institution, the project democratizes the act of being portrayed and challenges traditional notions of who belongs in a museum. It also highlights the growing role of technology in participatory art, with Google Arts & Culture Lab's decade-long collaboration with Devlin demonstrating how advanced tools can foster collective creativity and public engagement.