Es Devlin’s ‘A National Portrait’ for the National Portrait Gallery
Es Devlin in her studio
Today everyone in every part of the UK 18 and over can become a co-author of A National Portrait displayed at the National Portrait Gallery until October 27. This artwork is the culmination of three years of collaborative AI research and follows our decade long collaboration exploring ways advanced technologies can aid participation in collective artworks. Previous collaborations include Please Feed the Lions and Poem Portraits.
To participate in ‘A National Portrait’, take a photograph of yourself on the dedicated interactive experience on Google Arts & Culture where it will be transformed into an animated digital portrait generated in the style of Devlin's charcoal and chalk drawings. Within moments a digital edition of your portrait will be downloadable, and you can choose for your portrait to be included in a live evolving collective portrait displayed at the National Portrait Gallery until 27 October 2026. This is an experience that relies on the coming together of your individual phone processing your portrait based on the underlying technology. You can redraw up to five times.
To accompany this work, we encourage everyone to “leave traces” of their encounters with one another through the physical drawing process, as portrait artists have always done. There will be a free drawing event at the National Portrait Gallery on May 14, along with a number of workshops taking place during the period the work is displayed. For those who cannot visit the gallery in person, we have published a step-by-step drawing class published on Google Arts and Culture, available to everyone across the UK.
“It is a privilege to continue our decade-long collaboration with Es Devlin and help bring Es’s vision to life with Google technology. This latest work is a coming together of multiple technologies including the Gemini Image model layered with digital animation to scale Devlin’s thirty-year charcoal drawing practice into a nationwide invitation, allowing anyone in the UK to become a co-author of this collective work.” Amit Sood, VP and Founder, Google Arts & Culture
“The National Portrait Gallery belongs to us. It's the largest collection of portraits in the world and its 220,000 artworks are part of our cultural commons. It is a mirror of us: it reflects who we’ve been and who we are becoming. 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, Artist
To accompany this work, we encourage everyone to ‘leave traces’ of their encounters with one another through the physical drawing process, as portrait artists have always done. There will be a free drawing event at the National Portrait Gallery on 14 May, along with a number of workshops taking place during the period the work is displayed. For those who cannot visit the Gallery in person, we have a step-by-step drawing class on Google Arts and Culture, available to everyone across the UK.
Disclaimer: Portraits are generated by AI and may occasionally produce unexpected or inaccurate visual results. More info about Google AI Policy.
