Es Devlin, the designer behind The Lehman Trilogy and the London 2012 closing ceremony, receives her first European retrospective at the Design Museum in Kensington.
Es Devlin, who designed scenery for the London 2012 closing ceremony, receives her first retrospective in Europe at the Design Museum in Kensington. It runs from Friday 2 October 2026 to Sunday 4 April 2027.
Devlin was born in Kingston upon Thames in 1971. She read English literature at Bristol and trained in theatre design after a foundation year at Central Saint Martins. Trevor Nunn brought her to the National Theatre in 1998 to design Pinter’s Betrayal.
In 2005 Kanye West hired her for his Touch the Sky tour, the start of concert stages for artists from Beyoncé to U2.
Her set for The Lehman Trilogy won the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design in 2022, and she holds two Olivier Awards, for Chimerica and The Nether. Her UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai made her the first woman to hold that commission since world expositions began in 1851.
The exhibition covers thirty years of sculpture, stage design, music, language and light. It runs from a short film and a replica of her London studio to Archive Unboxed, her drawings and diaries. The closing Infinite Library gives its books to local charities when the show ends.