The National Portrait Gallery has acquired a new portrait of Charli XCX. The photograph, taken in 2024 by British photographer and director Harley Weir, shows the singer leaning back against a wall wearing a white crop top and black jeans.
Gallery’s Praise for Photographer and Singer
The gallery said Weir’s “distinctive, intimate visual style merges fashion, documentary, and fine art photography,” and described the image as portraying the “visionary artist” who released her latest album Music, Fashion, Film on Friday. It called Charli XCX “one of the defining artists of our time.”
“Moving between the experimental and the mainstream, she has built a career characterised by reinvention, collaboration, and a singular approach to artistry that has influenced both the sound and visual language of contemporary culture,” the gallery stated. “Her work has earned widespread critical acclaim including multiple Brit and Grammy Awards, cementing her status as one of contemporary pop’s most influential creative voices.”
The gallery added: “Beyond music, Charli has become a defining presence in fashion and contemporary image-making and has expanded her creative practice into film, where she acts, writes, produces and scores projects with directors including Takashi Miike, Greg Araki and Cathy Yann.”
Display and Acquisition Details
The portrait is now on display in the History Makers space, Room 33, which celebrates figures who have shaped contemporary culture and public life. It is one of multiple acquisitions through Collecting the Now, the gallery’s contemporary fund supported by a £1 million gift from the Bukhman Foundation.
Bukhman Foundation co-founder Anastasia Bukhman said: “It is an honour for the Bukhman Foundation to support exceptional public institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery as they respond to the present while preserving the past. We’re proud that Collecting the Now is helping tell the story of our own time, and delighted that Charli XCX is now part of that story.”
National Portrait Gallery senior curator of photographs Brandei Estes added: “Harley Weir has developed a distinctive photographic language that combines intimacy with a powerful sense of presence. We are delighted to acquire this striking portrait of Charli XCX, which captures one of the defining cultural figures of her generation while reflecting the gallery’s commitment to collecting contemporary portraiture by the artists and photographers shaping our visual culture today.”
Charli XCX’s Recent Work
Charli XCX’s latest record, her seventh, was released on July 24 and follows the global success of Brat in 2024. Her new music follows her Wuthering Heights companion album to Emerald Fennell’s film of the same name earlier this year, as well as her film The Moment. The mockumentary, released in January, is a semi-fictional look at the launch of her Brat album, the cultural phenomenon it sparked, and the world tour that followed.
