Alistair Hardaker | Image: Charli xcx, 2024, Harley Weir / National Portrait Gallery
The photograph by Harley Weir joins the Gallery’s Collection and is now on display in the History Makers space
The National Portrait Gallery has acquired a new portrait of British pop artist Charli xcx, photographed by Harley Weir.
The work is one of multiple acquisitions acquired through Collecting the Now, the Gallery’s contemporary acquisitions fund supported by a million pound gift from the Bukhman Foundation. The foundation is founded by Russian-born British entrepreneur Igor Bukhman, best known for founding online gaming company Playrix, and Anastasia Bukhman.
The Charlie xcx photograph was taken in 2024 by British photographer and director Harley Weir.
Brandei Estes, senior curator of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery said 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.”
Other recent acquisitions made using the fund include Self Portrait I (Venice), by Barbara Walker MBE RA, and The Liverpool Sphinx by Linder (2025), which will go on display next month.
In 2025, the NPG used the fund to acquire a rare self-portrait by Dame Sonia Boyce OBE – From Someone Else’s Fear Fantasy (A Case Of Mistaken Identity? Well This Is No Bed Of Roses) To Metamorphosis (1987) - and Souvenir 17 (Albert Edward, Prince of Wales) by Hew Locke. The portrait bust of Edward VII is now on display in the Empire and Resistance gallery (Room 23).
Both portraits were the first of each artists’ works to enter the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection, having previously been represented only as sitters.
“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”, said Anastasia Bukhman, co-founder of the Bukhman Foundation.
