Es Devlin Invites All 69 Million UK Residents to Co-Create a Living Portrait

British artist Es Devlin has launched A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery, a participatory project running through October 27 at the London institution. All 69 million UK residents are invited to upload a selfie, which is then transformed into charcoal and chalk markings mimicking Devlin's drawing style via an AI model trained by Google engineers. The results appear on a framed screen in the History Makers gallery. Devlin stated the work explores national identity as a continuous collective imagination, especially amid UK debates on immigration. The project includes online and onsite drawing classes. Flavia Frigeri, the gallery's collections director, noted it pushes portraiture boundaries. Devlin, known for West End and concert stage designs, has recently moved into fine art, with past projects at Superblue Miami, Cooper Hewitt (2023), and a rotating library at Miami Art Week.