An Atlas of Es Devlin | Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

An Atlas of Es Devlin is the first monographic museum exhibition dedicated to British artist and stage designer Es Devlin (born 1971), who is renowned for work that transforms audiences. Since beginning in small theaters in 1995, she has charted a course from kinetic stage designs at the National Theatre and the Metropolitan Opera to installations at major institutions, including the World Expo, Lincoln Center, and the United Nations headquarters. Her sculptures for Olympic Ceremonies, NFL Super Bowl halftime shows, and stadium tours for The Weeknd and U2 frame narratives that feel personal at a monumental scale. Over the past decade, she has adapted her craft to address climate and civilizational crises. Her public installations on endangered species and languages have inspired audiences to reimagine their connections to each other and to the planet. She shapes stories in ways that stay with us and reframe our thinking.

These stories often begin in the margins of texts. Devlin’s work is rooted in a lifelong practice of reading and drawing. Sketches and small cardboard models form the seeds of her large-scale architectures. Until now, these drawings, paintings, and sculptures have remained unseen. For this first monographic exhibition of her work, Devlin and the curators dug through her 30-year archive, mapping throughlines that connect her teenage paintings to her stage designs to her contemporary installations. Devlin calls the result an atlas—a collection of maps.

Connect with your own inspiration, explore the Es Devlin Creative Curriculum.

EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS

Iris installation.
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Layers of paper scribbled with handwriting, charcoal drawings, and colorful watercolor paintings, many depicting human faces, cover a wall, the gray of the wall barely peeking through. — Archive Unboxed installation.
Photo by Es Devlin Studio. Courtesy of Es Devlin.

Five adjacent rectangular boxes made of paper, with an interconnected swirling design cut across the front of them. — Sculptures, Ideas to Forms. Cut paper and board.
Presented 2020, BBC *Culture in Quarantine* Masterclass.
Photo by Es Devlin Studio. Courtesy of Es Devlin.

Three pieces of paper, each with a different colored circular design in the center. — Studies, Sphere. Mixed media on paper.
Staged 2023, *U2:UV Achtung Baby Live* at Sphere, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Photo by Es Devlin Studio. Courtesy of Es Devlin.

A floating white sphere crisscrossed with thin lines of light. A rectangle, glowing with white light, is cut into the side, and a small human figure stands in the center. — Model, Atlas. 3D-printed resin and LED, recreated for exhibition.
Atlas, by Meredith Monk, staged 2019, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Photo by Es Devlin Studio. Courtesy of Es Devlin.

A white model of a stage set propped up on a pole. The set is a rectangular glass box, inside which is an office conference room and three human figures. — Model, The Lehman Trilogy. Painted MDF, acrylic, cardstock, 3D-printed resin, brass, and LED, recreated for exhibition.
The Lehman Trilogy, by Stefano Massini and Ben Power, staged 2018, Royal National Theatre, Lyttelton, London, UK, and 2019, Park Avenue Armory, New York, New York, USA.
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution.

A long oval model surrounded by darkness. A row of white rectangular structures of different sizes glow white down the center, with tiny people standing atop them and dotted lines like city streets crisscrossing the oval around them. — Model, Compton Super Bowl. Laser-cut MDF, acrylic, 3D-printed resin, and LED, recreated for exhibition.
Staged 2022, NFL Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, and 50 Cent, SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution.

A white model of an art installation glowing with white light. Tall arches overlap over the head of a small human figure, with thin, webbing-like lines stretching across the arches. — Model, Your Voices. Acrylic, filament, nylon thread, and LED, recreated for exhibition.
Installed 2022, Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, New York, USA.
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution.

A model of a snarling lion's head, projected with bright orange light and overlapping, barely legible white handwriting. — Model, Please Feed the Lions. 3D-printed resin and LED, recreated for exhibition.
Installed 2018, London Design Biennale, Trafalgar Square, London, UK.
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution.

A small model of a theater inside a large wooden crate. The theater's stage is a screen showing a purple and pink Es Devlin stage design. — Theater in a Box installation.
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Films installation.
Photo by Es Devlin Studio. Courtesy of Es Devlin.

A person with their back to the camera stands behind a table strewn with paper, looking at a wall covered in pages of text and images. — Book Unbound installation.
Photo by Es Devlin Studio. Courtesy of Es Devlin.

publication

An Atlas of Es Devlin, the first monograph on Devlin’s genre-defying practice, is an experiential publication encompassing art, activism, theater, poetry, music, dance, opera, and sculpture.

Published by Thames & Hudson, UK in collaboration with Cooper Hewitt and edited by curator Andrea Lipps, An Atlas of Es Devlin is a unique, sculptural volume of over 900 pages, including foldouts, cut-outs, and a range of paper types, mirrors, and translucencies. The book features over 700 color images documenting 120 projects spanning four decades and a 50,000-word text featuring Devlin’s personal commentaries on each artwork, as well as interviews with collaborators, including Bono, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brian Eno, Sam Mendes, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Alice Rawsthorn, Carlo Rovelli, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, Lyndsey Turner, and Pharrell Williams. Each book is boxed and includes a die-cut print from an edition of 5,000.

Learn more about the publication.

enhance your visit

Download the free Bloomberg Connects app and embark on an audio journey through Es Devlin’s creative practice guided by the artist herself. In an introduction and fifteen stops, Devlin shares personal stories of process, which all begin with a line on a piece of paper, and morph through forms, studies, scale, and models.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The exhibition was curated by Andrea Lipps, Associate Curator of Contemporary Design and founding Head, Digital Curatorial Department, and by Julie Pastor, Curatorial Assistant.

Curatorial interns and fellows assisted with research and development: Madelyn Colonna, Bailey de Vries, Barbara Kasomenakis, and Sophie Scott.

Exhibition design and fabrication by Es Devlin Studio and Pink Sparrow. Graphic design by Morcos Key. Creative production by Jo MacKay. Projection and video design by Luke Halls Studio. Composition and sound design by Polyphonia. Lighting design by Bruno Poet and John Viesta. Audiovisual production and integration by AV&C.

SUPPORT

This exhibition is made possible with major support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Generous support is provided by Amita and Purnendu Chatterjee, Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer, Kimberly Schuessler, and Morgan M. Schuessler, Jr.

Support is also provided by the Arthur F. & Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, the August Heckscher Exhibition Fund, the Barbara and Morton Mandel Design Gallery Endowment Fund, Disguise Technologies, the Esme Usdan Exhibition Endowment Fund, the Lemberg Foundation, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation.