Saturday 15 June 2024 – Sunday 15 June 2025
Marri Ngarr artist Ryan Presley’s major installation greets you as you arrive at the Gallery, in a work that invites conversations about the ongoing legacies of colonisation.
Launched at the National Portrait Gallery in 2022, the Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize is a competition for primary and secondary students, with four separate age categories across Kindergarten to Year 12.
The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG.
Bookings availableThe National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024 celebrates established and emerging artistic talent from across the country.
Bookings availableDiscover 50 colonial-era collection works alongside 50 works by contemporary artist Joan Ross. With wit and wry critique, Ross will make you consider the artist’s role in determining which stories are told, about who and why.
Tracey’s Moffat’s complete Some Lads series powerfully and playfully depicts Russell Page, Larrakia man Gary Lang, Muruwari man Matthew Doyle, and Graham Blanco, a descendant of the Mer (Murray Island) people.
A most beautiful experiment responds to Congolese photographer Jean Depara’s documentation of Kinshara’s nightlife in the 1960s.
Drawn from the National Portrait Gallery collection, this salon-style hang references the lavish 18th- and 19th-century European salons where paintings were hung floor-to-ceiling.
Carol Jerrems: Portraits is a major exhibition of one of Australia’s most influential photographers. Jerrems’ intimate portraits of friends, lovers and artistic peers transcend the purely personal and have come to shape Australian visual culture.
Bookings availableThis show, staged alongside the major exhibition Carol Jerrems: Portraits, spotlights the work of three contemporary Australian artists whose work sits in dialogue with Jerrems’ legacy.
Learn about the architecture of the building before journeying through the Gallery to hear about the lives and legacies of the portrait subjects and the artistic techniques used to tell their stories.
Bookings requiredJoin a short introductory tour of the National Portrait Gallery and discover a few key portraits.
Bookings availableGallery Three features major new acquisitions, collection highlights and favourites.
Browse the full list of portraits from the collection that are on view now.
A free exhibition of over 100 works by contemporary Australian artist Thom Roberts. Step into his world and experience bold paintings, animation and installation works where people and places intertwine.
Drop into the Gallery any time for free creative activities inspired by artist Thom Roberts and his exhibition, The Immersive World of Thom Roberts.
Explore the Gallery at a quiet time of day.
Experience the joy and transformative power of slow looking. By taking your time with art, you can reconnect with the present, uncover hidden details and make personal discoveries.
Bookings requiredExplore the beauty and symbolism of flowers in this weird and wonderful floral extravaganza that showcases more than 50 portraits from the collection, new acquisitions and selected loans.
Do we have a treat for the smaller humans in your life! Little Faces is for babies and toddlers (with their grown up) to play, sing and have fun discovering a portrait together.
Bookings requiredDive into The Immersive World of Thom Roberts with a tour from exhibition curator and the Gallery’s Director, Curatorial and Collection, Isobel Parker Philip. Hear from Isobel as she shares the exhibition themes, discusses Thom’s practice and highlights key works.
Do we have a treat for the smaller humans in your life! Little Faces is for babies and toddlers (with their grown up) to play, sing and have fun discovering a portrait together.
Bookings requiredDo we have a treat for the smaller humans in your life! Little Faces is for babies and toddlers (with their grown up) to play, sing and have fun discovering a portrait together.
Bookings requiredExplore the Gallery at a quiet time of day.
Visit us, learn with us, support us or work with us! Here’s a range of information about planning your visit, our history and more!
We depend on your support to keep creating our programs, exhibitions, publications and building the amazing portrait collection!
Information on location, accessibility and amenities.