Brat summer ended, but Charli XCX never left the spotlight. Now, the singer is set to appear on the cover of the November issue of Vanity Fair—the magazine’s first art-themed issue in 20 years. For the occasion, London-based artist and musician Issy Wood—an Artsy Vanguard 2020 alum—painted a new portrait of Charli, Charli 2 (2025).
Commissioned to complement photographer Aidan Zamiri’s cover shoot, Charli 2 draws inspiration from “the length and quality of her career prior to the global success of Brat, the throwaway candor of her lyrics, [and] the Britishness we both share,” Wood told the magazine. The portrait features the top half of Charli’s face, framed by sparkles and squiggles. Despite its sequential title, Charli 2 does not follow a Charli 1— perhaps a playful reference to Pop 2, Charli’s 2017 mixtape that also stands alone.
Wood is known for grainy paintings featuring closely cropped and often unsettling renderings of objects and people, from jewelry and shiny cars to mouths and contorted faces. Her work is currently the subject of a solo show at the Schinkel Pavilion in Berlin, on view through January 31, 2026. She has also had solo shows at Carlos/Ishikawa and Michael Werner Gallery, both of which represent her. Wood is also a pop musician herself: She independently released her album Accidental American in 2024.
Charli XCX, meanwhile, often crosses into the art world. She held a listening party at the Storm King Art Center in October 2024 and performed at the LACMA Art+Film Gala that same year. She is also set to appear alongside Natalie Portman in an upcoming film about the art world, titled The Gallerist. The film, directed by Cathy Yan, centers on an art dealer who tries to sell a corpse at an art fair.
Vanity Fair’s last art issue was published in 2006. It features Brad Pitt in one of American artist Robert Wilson’s life-size video portraits.
