Current Exhibitions |
David M Thomas: Dream Job
2 December 2011 - 18 March 2012 Since 1993 Brisbane-based artist David M Thomas has investigated self identity through art works that encompass painting, text, audio, video and performance. The National Portrait Gallery has invited David M Thomas to exhibit this digital video installation in the multimedia project space.
Image: Eddie, video still from Dream Job (Eddie, Danny, Julian, Martha, Olivia) 2010-11 |
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Impressions: Painting light and life
25 November 2011 - 4 March 2012 Impressions: Painting light and life presents portraits by, and of, artists at the heart of Australian impressionism including Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin. Featuring well-loved icons of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Australian art, as well as rarely-exhibited works drawn from public and private collections, the summer show offers a gorgeous glimpse into the world of a group of people to whom art was life itself.
Image: Tea time c.1898 - 1902 (detail) by Rupert Bunny, watercolour over pencil, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased 1961
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Of kings and men: Celebrating 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection
3 November 2011 - 5 February 2012 This display celebrates 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection and its role in commissioning portraits of parliamentary and judicial figures in Australia. The display will include four large-scale spectacular portraits that reflect the early years of official portraiture in Australia. Image: King Edward VII, 1910 by George Lambert (detail) Courtesy of the Historic Memorials Collection, Department of Parliamentary Services, Canberra |
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Jo's mo show (with beards)
28 October 2011 - 1 April 2012 Any survey of the National Portrait Gallery's collection reveals numerous variations in facial hair fashions. From the be-wigged and clean-shaven gents of the eighteenth century to the 70s blokes brandishing handlebar mos, portraits and the individuals depicted in them show also that such styles are more than mere whim; and that men's choices to sport facial hair have usually been closely connected to shifts in ideas about politics, society, identity or masculinity. Jo's mo show (with beards) illustrates changes in beards, moustaches and sideburns from the 1780s to the 1980s. Image: Henry Lawson by Lionel Lindsay (detail) c.1919 More information > |
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Collection Display
The collection display includes over 450 portraits that tell extraordinary stories of encounter, exploration, independence, individuality and achievement in Australia. Visitors to the Gallery can follow the development of portraiture from oil painting to digital media.
Image: Angry Anderson (detail) by Sally Robinson |
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Coming Soon  |
Skater: Portraits by Nikki Toole
16 February - 29 April 2012 Nikki Toole has travelled the world to photograph skateboarders. The portraits evoke the solitary mental space experienced while skating. Nineteen portraits will be on show, the first time images from the skater project have been exhibited as a group. Image: Caroline Dynybil, Skatehalle, Berlin, Germany (detail) 2010 |
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National Photographic Portrait Prize 2012
20 March - 20 May 2012 The National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition is selected from a national field of entries that reflect the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects. With the generous support of Visa, the National Portrait Gallery offers a prize of $25,000 for the most outstanding photographic portrait.
The winner will be announced on 19 March 2012 More information > |
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Elegance in exile
1 June - 26 August 2012 Elegance in exile is an exhibition surveying the work of Richard Read senior, Thomas Bock, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and Charles Rodius: four artists who, though exiled to Australia as convicts, created many of the most significant and elegant portraits of the colonial period. An exhibition of sixty beautiful and rarely-seen drawings, watercolours and miniatures, Elegance in exile will examine the interplay of art, biography and history in their work, tracing the links between their own lives and those of their sitters to present a fine and vivid map of life, culture and aspirations in colonial Australia. Image: Martha Sarah Butler (detail), by Thomas Griffiths Wainewright
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What's On
Contact Us
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Curatorial
Christopher Chapman
A/g Senior Curator
Ph (+61 2) 6102 7036
Fax (+61 2) 6102 7001
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National Portrait Gallery
King Edward Terrace
Parkes, ACT 2600
www.portrait.gov.au
Ph (+61 2) 6102 7000
Fax (+61 2) 6102 7001
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