Skip to main content

The website will be offline for maintenance 7:30–8:30am AEDT Friday 30 January.

Menu
What's on Prizes The Portraits Watch
The Gallery Governance & Board Circle of Friends
Learn Access Search the website
close close
What's on The Portraits The Gallery Learn Watch More O

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.

Open Air

Portraits in the Landscape

Previous exhibition
from Wednesday 3 December 2008 until Sunday 1 March 2009

Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.

Margaret Whitlam
Margaret Whitlam, 2005 Sahlan Hayes. © Sahlan Hayes

The exhibition extends the notion of portraiture beyond the simple definition of 'pictures with faces' to embrace deeply-rooted visual expressions of identity in which various artists have engaged with different kinds of ancestral history. Inclusive, lyrical and strongly Australian in character.

16 portraits
view all

The crime writer Shane Maloney
Jeffrey Smart
Joshua Ross
Peter Carey in Kelly country
Sidney Nolan, Western Australia
Arthur Boyd, Bundanon, New South Wales
1 The crime writer Shane Maloney, 2004 Rick Amor. © Rick Amor/Copyright Agency, 2024. 2 Jeffrey Smart, 1992 Greg Weight. © Gregory Weight/Copyright Agency, 2024. 3 Joshua Ross, 2006 Sahlan Hayes. © Sahlan Hayes. 4 Peter Carey in Kelly country, 2000 Bruce Armstrong. © Bruce Armstrong. 5 Sidney Nolan, Western Australia, 1962 (printed 2000) David Moore. © Lisa, Michael, Matthew and Joshua Moore http://davidmoorephotography.com.au/. 6 Arthur Boyd, Bundanon, New South Wales, 1995 (printed 2000) David Moore. © Lisa, Michael, Matthew and Joshua Moore http://davidmoorephotography.com.au/.

Related people

Dr Sarah Engledow (curator)

Andrew Sayers AM

Home Contact Media Privacy statement User agreement Social media and community guidelines
© National Portrait Gallery 2026
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