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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

What's on

Saturday 28 January 2023 – Sunday 28 January 2024

Maria
Maria
Maria
Maria

WHO ARE YOU

Australian portraiture

Exhibition closes 29 January

Featuring 130 works across painting, film, photography, screen printing, sculpture, and then some – it explores our inner worlds, outer selves, intimacy, isolation, celebrity and more.

Marion Borgelt
Marion Borgelt
Marion Borgelt
Marion Borgelt

Time and Line

In Gallery Seven

Exhibition closes 19 February

Encompassing the 1820s to the 2020s, Time and Line showcases the depth and extent of our drawing collection.

Self portrait
Self portrait
Self portrait
Self portrait

The work of art

In Galleries Eight and Nine

Exhibition closes 23 May

It takes a village to raise a creative! Get an insight into the often-unseen work and supporters needed for the arts to thrive. The work of art documents the creative process, evoke states of creativity and inspiration, and shows us clues about the subject’s own work from the way artists portray them.

Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman

At ease

In Gallery One

Exhibition closes 3 December

Enjoy, sit back, and relax with some of our favourites from the Gallery’s collection, where they find themselves expertly – and comfortably – captured by their artists.

Portrait23: Identity logo
Portrait23: Identity logo
Portrait23: Identity logo
Portrait23: Identity logo

Portrait23: Identity

Exhibition opens 10 March

Portraiture. Not as you know it. We invite you to stretch, push, resist and transcend portraiture’s conventional constraints.

Maggie
Maggie
Maggie
Maggie

Collection Highlights Tour

Daily at 2:15pm

Join us in the Gallery for this free 30-minute tour of the collection, exploring portrait stories and the history of the building.

Bookings optional
Self-nature is subtle and mysterious - Tree Woman / Woman Tree
Self-nature is subtle and mysterious - Tree Woman / Woman Tree
Self-nature is subtle and mysterious - Tree Woman / Woman Tree
Self-nature is subtle and mysterious - Tree Woman / Woman Tree

New acquisitions

In Gallery Two

Open every day

A collection display that showcases some recent major acquisitions including Nell and Julie Rrap.

Twelve portraits of finalists for the Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2023
Twelve portraits of finalists for the Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2023
Twelve portraits of finalists for the Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2023
Twelve portraits of finalists for the Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2023

Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2023

Exhibition opens 25 March

Little Darlings is for primary and secondary students, with four separate categories across Kindergarten to Year 12. Responding to the theme ‘identity’, students painted, drew, photographed, printed or combined all of these to make their portrait.

Marea Gazzard
Marea Gazzard
Marea Gazzard
Marea Gazzard

The Iconoclasts

In Gallery Three

Open every day

Australian portraiture of the mid-twentieth century was rich with the influence of European modernism, exemplified by the work of artists including Arthur Boyd, Judy Cassab and Clifton Pugh.

Mary Chomley
Mary Chomley
Mary Chomley
Mary Chomley

The Cosmopolitans

In Gallery Two

Exhibition opens 1 April

Spanning the 1880s to the 1930s, this collection display celebrates the innovations in art – and life – introduced by the generation of Australians who travelled to London and Paris for experience and inspiration in the decades either side of 1900.

Self portrait, 2022 RJ Parker
Self portrait, 2022 RJ Parker
Self portrait, 2022 RJ Parker
Self portrait, 2022 RJ Parker

Gulgawarnigu

Thinking of something, someone

Exhibition opens 3 June

In partnership with Big hART we are proud to present Gulgawarnigu - Thinking of something, someone, a national presentation of digital artworks created from Ngarluma country leramagadu (Roebourne), in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Ruby (left view), 2022 Shea Kirk
Ruby (left view), 2022 Shea Kirk
Ruby (left view), 2022 Shea Kirk
Ruby (left view), 2022 Shea Kirk

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

Exhibition opens 17 June

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

Bookings available
An Afternoon (Aunty Jenny Munro at the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy)
An Afternoon (Aunty Jenny Munro at the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy)
An Afternoon (Aunty Jenny Munro at the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy)
An Afternoon (Aunty Jenny Munro at the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy)

This is my place

In Gallery Four

Open every day

We all have places where we feel at ease, a sense of belonging, of ownership, of relaxation, of self. Given the opportunity, portraitists love to place their sitters in an environment where they are most at home.

Self portrait
Self portrait
Self portrait
Self portrait

Self portrait: Myself and I

In Gallery Five

Open every day

Encompassing works created over the past 80 years, this selection of portraits from the Gallery’s collection celebrates inventiveness and diversity in approaches to self portraiture.

Cathy Freeman
Cathy Freeman
Cathy Freeman
Cathy Freeman

Frocked up

In Gallery Six

Open every day

The selection of works in Frocked up richly demonstrates the interconnectedness of costume and portraiture – and the many ways in which artists have employed the representation of dress to powerful, insightful effect.

James, Rebecca and Sam Mapu
James, Rebecca and Sam Mapu
James, Rebecca and Sam Mapu
James, Rebecca and Sam Mapu

Time and light

In Gallery Seven

Exhibition opens 21 July

This sample of 56 photographs takes in some of the smallest photographs we own and some of the largest, some of the earliest and some of the most recent, as well as multiple photographic processes from daguerreotypes to digital media.

Tempe Manning Self-portrait 1939
Tempe Manning Self-portrait 1939
Tempe Manning Self-portrait 1939
Tempe Manning Self-portrait 1939

Archie 100

A Century of the Archibald Prize

Exhibition opens 20 October

This major exhibition celebrates 100 years of Australia’s oldest and most-loved portrait award and reflects upon the changing face of our nation.

Bookings available
Maggie
Maggie
Maggie
Maggie

Maggie Beer

In Gallery One

Exhibition opens 7 December

Our most recent commission, the portrait of Maggie Beer by Del Kathryn Barton both combines a statuesque almost devotional likeness with a spell-binding and dream-like personalised symbology of the sitter.

More events

Monday 29 January 2024 – Tuesday 28 January 2025
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King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency