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Have you ever wanted to see yourself in the National Portrait Gallery?

Es Devlin introduces a new evolving digital artwork on display in the History Makers Gallery.

A collective portrait of the nation that invites you to be part of it...to participate take a photograph of your face on the dedicated site on Google Arts & Culture where it will be transformed into an animated digital portrait, using a tool stylistically directed on Devlin’s charcoal and chalk drawings.  

At the click of a button, you can submit your portrait to instantly become part of the National Portrait. Every participant can also download a unique digital edition of their portrait. This artwork is the culmination of three years of collaborative research between Es Devlin and Google Arts & Culture Lab.

Find it now on display in the History Makers Now Gallery until 27 October.

🎥 Google Arts & Culture

A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery.
Thursday 14 May - 27 October 2026
at The National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE

A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery is a portrait of us - a portrait that keeps redrawing itself every time someone joins it. Everyone over 18 in the UK can become a co-author of the work and receive a unique digital portrait of themselves. Each portrait is produced by an image generation model we have been researching and developing for 3 years, using all the chalk and charcoal portraits I’ve made to guide its style of mark making. Please come and be a co-author of A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery.

You can also join the National Portrait and download your unique digital portrait wherever you are in the UK from Thursday 14 May, even if you can’t be physically present at the gallery. Link in bio

I will be leading a number of portrait drawing workshops - the first two are tomorrow - please join us if you can, free to all, no need to book, free drawing materials provided.

Thursday 14 May at 15.00-15.45 and 15.45-16.30
at The National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE

“The National Portrait Gallery belongs to us. It’s the largest collection of portraits in the world with over 220,000 artworks that form part of our cultural commons. It is a mirror of us: it reflects who we’ve been and who we are becoming. Now everyone present in every part of the UK can become a co-author of A National Portrait and watch as their face etches itself into a collective artwork exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery. The portrait can hold all of us, together, whatever our backgrounds and beliefs, constantly redrawing itself to include each new participant. It explores national identity as a continuous process of collective imagination.”
Es Devlin.Link in bio

A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery.
Thursday 14 May - 27 October 2026
at The National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE

A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery is a portrait of us - a portrait that keeps redrawing itself every time someone joins it. Everyone over 18 in the UK can become a co-author of the work and receive a unique digital portrait of themselves. Each portrait is produced by an image generation model we have been researching and developing for 3 years, using all the chalk and charcoal portraits I’ve made to guide its style of mark making. Please come and be a co-author of A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery.

You can also join the National Portrait and download your unique digital portrait wherever you are in the UK from Thursday 14 May, even if you can’t be physically present at the gallery. Link in bio

I will be leading a number of portrait drawing workshops - the first two are tomorrow - please join us if you can, free to all, no need to book, free drawing materials provided.

Thursday 14 May at 15.00-15.45 and 15.45-16.30
at The National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE

“The National Portrait Gallery belongs to us. It’s the largest collection of portraits in the world with over 220,000 artworks that form part of our cultural commons. It is a mirror of us: it reflects who we’ve been and who we are becoming. Now everyone present in every part of the UK can become a co-author of A National Portrait and watch as their face etches itself into a collective artwork exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery. The portrait can hold all of us, together, whatever our backgrounds and beliefs, constantly redrawing itself to include each new participant. It explores national identity as a continuous process of collective imagination.”
Es Devlin. Link in Bio

CONGREGATION
A choral installation at PAC NYC
On Now until 4th January
Free / pay what you want - book your slot at PAC NYC site - link in bio
Perelman Arts Center, 251 Fulton St, NYC,
next to World Trade Center Memorial

Between April and August 2024 I made chalk and charcoal drawings of 50 strangers.
I knew only their first name, and nothing else about them, except that at some point in their life, they had to seek refuge, and they sought it here, in London. We did not speak for the first 45 minutes of the drawing session. We listened to Max Richter’s Four Seasons. A face to face encounter, unmediated by language. Emmanuel Levinas wrote: ‘the human face ordains and orders us; it’s first commandment is : thou shalt not kill”.

After 45 minutes they told me their stories, how they travelled to London, sometimes decades ago as a small child, sometimes months ago on a small boat.

We translated the drawings into a 24’ tall installation, projection-mapped with a choreographic sequence made in collaboration with Botis Seva, Joshua Shanny Wynter, Evie Gurney and Ruth Hogben. As a synonym for ‘refugee’ we used the phrase ‘those who bring their gifts to London’. Each sitter became a co-author of the work, guiding me how to paint their gift within the empty box they held on their lap.

First shown at St Mary le Strand church in collaboration with The Courtauld, Kings College London and UNHCR last year, and curated by Ekow Eshun, the installation is now open until January 4th at PAC NYC, Perelman Arts Center, 251 Fulton St, NYC. It has found new resonance at this charged site adjacent to the World Trade Center memorial.

Underscore composed by Polyphonia
Projection by Ruth Hogben and Treatment Studio with VYV
Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies
The co-authors full stories can be found at Bloomberg Connects - link in bio
And there’s a BBC short doc about the making of the work - link in bio

CONGREGATION
A choral installation at PAC NYC
On Now until 4th January
Free / pay what you want - book your slot at PAC NYC site - link in bio
Perelman Arts Center, 251 Fulton St, NYC,
next to World Trade Center Memorial

Between April and August 2024 I made chalk and charcoal drawings of 50 strangers.
I knew only their first name, and nothing else about them, except that at some point in their life, they had to seek refuge, and they sought it here, in London. We did not speak for the first 45 minutes of the drawing session. We listened to Max Richter’s Four Seasons. A face to face encounter, unmediated by language. Emmanuel Levinas wrote: ‘the human face ordains and orders us; it’s first commandment is : thou shalt not kill”.

After 45 minutes they told me their stories, how they travelled to London, sometimes decades ago as a small child, sometimes months ago on a small boat.

We translated the drawings into a 24’ tall installation, projection-mapped with a choreographic sequence made in collaboration with Botis Seva, Joshua Shanny Wynter, Evie Gurney and Ruth Hogben.The poet JJ Bola contributed to the voiceover. As a synonym for ‘refugee’ we used the phrase ‘those who bring their gifts to London’. Each sitter became a co-author of the work, guiding me how to paint their gift within the empty box they held on their lap.

First shown at St Mary le Strand church in collaboration with The Courtauld, Kings College London and UNHCR last year, and curated by Ekow Eshun, the installation is now open until January 4th at PAC NYC, Perelman Arts Center, 251 Fulton St, NYC. It has found new resonance at this charged site adjacent to the World Trade Center memorial.

Underscore composed by Polyphonia
Projection by Ruth Hogben and Treatment Studio with VYV
Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies
The co-authors full stories can be found at Bloomberg Connects - link in bio
And there’s a BBC short doc about the making of the work - link in bio

CONGREGATION
A choral installation at PAC NYC
On Now until 4th January
Free / pay what you want - book your slot at PAC NYC site - link in bio
Perelman Arts Center, 251 Fulton St, NYC,
next to World Trade Center Memorial

Between April and August 2024 I made chalk and charcoal drawings of 50 strangers.
I knew only their first name, and nothing else about them, except that at some point in their life, they had to seek refuge, and they sought it here, in London. We did not speak for the first 45 minutes of the drawing session. We listened to Max Richter’s Four Seasons. A face to face encounter, unmediated by language. Emmanuel Levinas wrote: ‘the human face ordains and orders us; it’s first commandment is : thou shalt not kill”.

After 45 minutes they told me their stories, how they travelled to London, sometimes decades ago as a small child, sometimes months ago on a small boat.

We translated the drawings into a 24’ tall installation, projection-mapped with a choreographic sequence made in collaboration with Botis Seva, Joshua Shanny Wynter, Evie Gurney and Ruth Hogben. As a synonym for ‘refugee’ we used the phrase ‘those who bring their gifts to London’. Each sitter became a co-author of the work, guiding me how to paint their gift within the empty box they held on their lap.

First shown at St Mary le Strand church in collaboration with The Courtauld, Kings College London and UNHCR last year, and curated by Ekow Eshun, the installation is now open until January 4th at PAC NYC, Perelman Arts Center, 251 Fulton St, NYC. It has found new resonance at this charged site adjacent to the World Trade Center memorial.

Underscore composed by Polyphonia
Projection by Ruth Hogben and Treatment Studio with VYV
Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies
The co-authors full stories can be found at Bloomberg Connects - link in bio
And there’s a BBC short doc about the making of the work - link in bio

Es Devlin’s (@esdevlin) ‘The Library of Us’ rises from Faena Beach in Miami like a luminous monument to reflection amid the rush of Art Basel. The 20-foot-tall rotating bookshelf filled with 2,500 volumes offers a rare pause for reading and quiet contemplation. By day it turns slowly in a sunlit pool on the sands of Faena Beach; by night it becomes a glowing beacon, a hypnotic tribute to the enduring power of the written word.

Earlier this week, Es Devlin (@esdevlin) unveiled “Library of Us” on Faena Beach for Miami Art Week. The installation features a slowly rotating triangular bookshelf, nearly twenty feet tall and fifty feet long, set within a shallow reflecting pool and encircled by two concentric reading tables—one still, one in motion. ⁠
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Watch as Devlin speaks with Ursula about the making of “Library of Us” and the ideas that shaped its debut.⁠
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Video: Olly Bharat @olly.bharat Ted Mendez @tedmendez
Photography: Es Devlin, “Library of Us,” 2025. Photos: Oriol Tarridas. Courtesy of the artist and Faena Art

PORTRAITS OF US
—ES DEVLIN
Presented by @ChaseSapphire #ChaseSapphirePartner,
Past Tuesday, we had the honor of hosting a drawing class workshop entitled Portraits of Us, lead by artist Es Devlin. Participants met at the Library of Us and drew each face they met as the sculpture revolved, resulting in a collective portrait.
Whether reading, conversing, listening or drawing, Library of Us provides an architecture of encounter. Join us this week at the Faena District!
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FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
December 2nd - 7th
@FaenaMiamiBeach @Faena
——
Featured Artist
@EsDevlin
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Translation provided by Ray-Ban Meta
@raybanmeta #MetaRayBan Display, #RayBanMeta
——
Faena Art thanks @chateaulagordonne @casadragones @illy_coffee @fevertree_usa @perrier @redbull @saintjamesicedtea @bombaysapphire @lafetewine for their generous support

📚Step into the mind of visionary artist @esdevlin (Es Devlin), whose work bridges art, architecture, poetry, and music. Her latest installation, Library of Us—commissioned by @faenaart (Faena Art) for their 10th anniversary at Art Basel Miami—is a luminous triangular bookshelf set in a circular reflecting pool on Faena Beach. Evolving from her Milan piece, Library of Light, this monumental sculpture invites collective reading in response to what Devlin calls “our contemporary erosion of focus.”

Devlin recalls her teenage years immersed in books, before smartphones fragmented attention. The sculpture, shaped like a sundial or compass, points both out to the Atlantic and inland to Miami—a city shaped from north, south, east and west. Fragile paperbacks sit inches from the water, a poignant detail in a city now 400 times more likely to flood than 19 years ago.

Towering nearly 20 ft. tall and 50 ft. long, Library of Us houses 4,000 books across 2,500 titles that have most influenced Devlin’s thinking. Visitors meet either side of a circular reading table—they travel a full rotation every 10 minutes.

The commissions continue with Reading Room, a 46-foot bench bookshelf featuring an LED strip with phrases from books chosen by Faena Hotel housekeeping staff, kitchen staff, pool cleaners, previously commissioned artists, and fabrication teams. Tracing Time in The Faena Art Project Room offers an intimate look at Devlin’s creative process, showcasing sketches, glass paintings, and painted TV screens from her London studio—available for sale for the first time.

Recognizing that 70% of Miami’s population speaks Spanish as a first language, Devlin offers real-time translation via @raybanmeta glasses, available to borrow at the @raybanmeta info kiosks, enabling guests to connect across language barriers.

Whether reading, conversing, or listening, Library of Us provides an architecture of encounter.

Sound design: @polyphonia_studio, @adiworldwide
Photography/Video: @SunnStudio.co, @Orioltarridas, @koffie.agency
Archival images: @esdevlin
Additional 👓footage: @raybanmeta
✨ See @design Broadcast Channel credits

#EsDevlin #FaenaArt #RayBanMeta #ArtBaselMiami #Design

Library of Us, commissioned by Faena Art on Faena Beach Miami - now until 7th December - free and open to the public.
A 50-foot-wide rotating triangular bookshelf containing 2500 books including the texts that have most influenced me. The illuminated triangular sculpture rotates like a mirrored compass needle within a circular reflecting pool surrounded by a 70-foot-wide collective reading table, set daily with my books for viewers to read as they revolve around one another.

Throughout the day, the library reads aloud in my voice, phrases from 250 texts.

“Books are the compass of the mind, pointing toward countless worlds yet to be explored”
Umberto Eco

“I am not sure I exist actually, I am every book I have ever read,”
Jorge Luis Borges

“It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
James Baldwin

The books incorporated within Library of Us have been kindly supplied by Penguin Random Houseand will be donated to various organizations throughout Miami, including public libraries and schools, at the end of Miami Art Week.

There are also works for sale that relate to this and other recent projects in Tracing Time, an exhibition of paintings on glass, paper and a kinetic sculpture. Faena Art Project Room opposite the the hotel at 3420 Collins Ave

Reading Room is the final part of the commission - in the Faena hotel entrance Cathedral space - it incorporates the favourite books of all the hotel staff
These commissions are presented by Chase Sapphire Reserve More details at link in bio

LIBRARY OF US
—ES DEVLIN
Presented by @ChaseSapphire, #ChaseSapphirePartner Faena Art marks ten years in Miami Beach with Es Devlin’s ‘Library of Us’—a 50-foot revolving library and radiant reading room that turns the Faena District into a shared space for reflection during Miami Art Week. The exhibition unfolds across three sites: a kinetic sculpture on Faena Beach, the luminous ‘Reading Room’ inside Faena Cathedral, and ‘Tracing Time’, a suite of drawings and paintings on glass, paper, and screens in the Faena Art Project Room.
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Miami Art Week 2025 programming also features ‘Tropical Stomping Grounds’ by Pepe Mar, a site-specific installation at Casa Faena supporting No Vacancy, a program by the City of Miami Beach, the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority, and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.
#MiamiArtWeek
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FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
December 2nd - 5:00PM at @FaenaMiamiBeach @Faena
RSVP link in bio
——
Featured Artist
@EsDevlin

Translation provided by Ray-Ban Meta
@raybanmeta #MetaRayBan Display, #RayBanMeta

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Faena Art thanks @chateaulagordonne @casadragones @illy_coffee @fevertree_usa @perrier @redbull @saintjamesicedtea @lafetewine @bombaysapphire for their generous support.