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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.

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General information

Big Draw 2012 photos

14 October 2012

General content

Photos from around the gallery on the day of the Big Draw.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022

Learning resources

Let’s look closely at the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022 together! For students and family groups.

Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize

Prizes and awards

The competition is for Australian school students and home-schooled students aged from 5-18 years.

You are what is most beautiful about me: a self portrait with Kel and Arella, 2007 Del Kathryn Barton

Unplanned arrival leads to blissful adoration

Nearest & Dearest

A mother’s ‘in-loveness’

Visiting with a school group

Visual Stories

Access support for students.

Tony Sowersby

Vox pops

Sabine's the sister-in-law of one of my oldest friends so I've known her for a while.

Free Range Cousins, 2015 by Jennifer Stocks

Children of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2016

Learning resource

Learning resource archive

Senses, movement and imagination in portraits of children from the 2016 Prize. For Year 1 - 3 students.

Atong Atem

Artists and Collectives

Atong Atem is an Ethiopian-born, South Sudanese artist and writer living in Narrm/Melbourne. Her work explores migrant narratives and postcolonial practices in the African diaspora.

A free family festival to celebrate spring and Children’s Week

24 October 2018

Archived media releases 2018

Wake from your winter hibernation to celebrate Children’s Week and Canberra’s spring season at the National Portrait Gallery’s free Spring Festival.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

Learning resources

We encourage you to look, to feel, to think, to question and most importantly, to identify and connect.

Simon Harsent

Finalist interviews

I like to think I'm an artist who uses photography as my medium, but I work commercially as a photographer and it's my full time occupation so I guess that defines me as a photographer or maybe a commercial artist?

Last week to vote for your favourite portrait

1 June 2015

Archived media releases 2015

The National Portrait Gallery’s National Photographic Portrait Prize 2015 will close Monday 8 June 2015, this is the last week to visit the exhibition in Canberra and vote for your favourite portrait in the People’s Choice.

Elle Macpherson, 1995 photographed by Andrew Macpherson

Women in Vogue: Celebrating Sixty years in Australia

20 May 2019

Archived media releases 2019

Celebrating sixty years of Australia’s most exceptional women as they appeared in Vogue Australia, the National Portrait Gallery is proud to announce an exhibition in collaboration with this pre-eminent fashion title.

Toni Collette as Muriel trying on a wedding dress by Robert McFarlane, Muriel’s Wedding, 1994

Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits opens

9 November 2017

Archived media releases 2017

Visitors will be left in awe with the National Portrait Gallery and National Film and Sound Archive of Australia’s (NFSA) new star-studded exhibition, Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits.

Nikhil Chopra

by Rattanamol Johal

Artist essays

Nikhil Chopra was born in 1974, in Calcutta. His first degree was in commerce, but in 1997 he took up fine art studies, eventually gaining a Masters in Fine Art from Ohio State University, United States.

Andrew Gaze, 2018

by George Fetting

General content

Commissioned with funds provided by Trent Birkett 2018

Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery, London

Announcing Shakespeare to Winehouse

24 November 2021

Archived media releases 2021

More than eighty treasures from the National Portrait Gallery London will travel to Canberra for a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from March 2022.

Nadiah Bamadhaj

by Beverly Yong

Artist essays

Born in Malaysia in 1968, to a Malaysian Muslim father and a New Zealander mother of Scottish descent Nadiah Bamadhaj studied Fine Arts in New Zealand, and is currently working on a PhD from Curtin University, Western Australia.

Pushpamala N

by Ajay Sinha

Artist essays

Pushpamala N. was born in 1956 in Bangalore. Her early training was in sculpture, but as her practice progressed she brought an early enthusiasm for narrative figuration into her photographic work.

NPPP 2016 exhibition essay

General content

Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.

A non-material and non-physical portrait

Lecture, 21 May 2011

General content

Inner Worlds features the recently commissioned portrait of world-renowned philosopher of consciousness David Chalmers by Melbourne-based artist Nick Mourtzakis.

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Exhibition essay

General content

Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.

Kristin Headlam

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Basil grew into a speckled beauty – a long-legged leaper and an exceptionally vocal dog, with a great register of sounds, ascending in shock value from a whimper to a growl to a bark to a yelp that’s a violation of the ears.

Uncommon Australians

The vision of Gordon and Marilyn Darling

General content

Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.

Lucy Culliton

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Most well-regarded pictures of chickens show them dead. A reliable way to tell if a chicken in a painting is dead is to check if it’s hanging upside down, because unlike, say, cockatoos, chickens don’t practise inversion for enjoyment in life.

The art of Inner Worlds

Lecture, 7 May 2011

General content

Dr Christopher Chapman NPG Curator of Inner Worlds explains the development of an exhibition that spans from Surrealism to contemporary art.

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

General content

Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.

Nicholas Harding

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Over the years the young Nicholas Harding got his hands on various mice and guinea pigs, but they served mainly to illustrate the concept of mortality.

Faces of war

Lecture, 14 May 2011

General content

Lesley Harding, Curator, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne explores Albert Tucker’s experience of World War II, his interests in the intersection between psychology and creativity, and their influence on his portrait making.

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