Devotional at the National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery has a new free exhibition opening this June, called Devotional:Portraits Of Black Women Singers which celebrates black female singers in British entertainment from the early twentieth century to the present.

Devotional features photographic portraits of singers taken by prominent photographers working in the music industry including Bob Collins, Pennie Smith, Kofi Allen, Albert Watson and Andy Earl. The singers whose portraits are on show include Shirley Bassey, Joan Armatrading, Des’ree and Ms.Dynamite.

As part of the show artist Sonia Boyce will inscribe the names of 170 black British women prominent in the entertainment industry onto the gallery walls, a project that should take two weeks starting at the beginning of June. Music from some of these singers will also be played. The National Portrait Gallery is in St Martin’s Place on the side of the National Gallery and is open daily from 10am-6pm (9pm Thurs-Fri), Devotional runs until November.