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Michelle de Kretser (b. 1957), author, came to Melbourne with her Sinhalese Dutch parents in 1972.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of Michelle de Kretser 2015. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Michelle Simmons AO (b. 1967), 2018 Australian of the Year, is a pioneer in atomic electronics and quantum computing.
1 portrait in the collection
Michelle Garnaut AO studied at Monash University before travelling widely in the early 1980s, returning to Melbourne to complete catering qualifications at William Angliss College.
1 portrait in the collection
Recorded 2018
Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018
Professor Michelle Simmons and photographer Selina Ou.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Michelle Fracaro examines the life of World War II nurse Margaret Anderson, whose portrait by Napier Waller is in the NPG collection.
Michelle Fracaro describes Lionel Lindsay's woodcut The Jester (self-portrait).
Australian actress Deborah Mailman is the subject of a unique portrait by Evert Ploeg.
Pat Corrigan's generous gift of 100 photographic portraits by Greg Weight.
Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018
The Art Handlers' Award for 2019 went to A Calm So Deep, 2018 by Elizabeth Looker.
The eight photographers represent diverse styles, specialities and career paths. Abigail Varney, Peter Brew-Bevan, Martin Philbey, John Tsiavis, Michelle Day, Julian Kingma, and Giovanni Lovisetto.
This exhibition goes behind-the-scenes and into the spotlight with professional photographers and the stars of Australian television, music and comedy. Whether negotiating the logistics of a big publicity shoot or quietly capturing moments on set during filming, the photographers' stories are intriguing and compelling.
Kim Sajet reflects on two portraits with a power that extends beyond gallery walls.
Miranda Otto (b. 1967), actress, is the daughter of the prominent Australian actor Barry Otto.
3 portraits in the collection
The photographers reveal the technical side of their work and reflect on changes in their profession. Now everyone has a camera in their pocket, is everyone a photographer? What is it like to sustain a career as a photographer in the entertainment industry? How do you work with celebrity subjects, negotiate the complex logistics of big shoots, and create captivating portraits under pressure?
Selina Ou (b. 1977), a Melbourne-based photographer, established her reputation through photographs of figures in urban environments that teem with detail, such as streets, convenience stores, workshops, hardware outlets and pharmacies.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Kenneth Gillespie (1929–2010), dancer, teacher and founder of the Tasmanian Ballet, left his native Launceston at age sixteen to join the Borovansky Ballet in Melbourne.
1 portrait in the collection
Fiona McMonagle, an Irish-born, Melbourne-based artist, grew up in an outer suburb of Melbourne and completed a qualification in visual arts at RMIT before progressing to the Victorian College of the Arts.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2015
At the end of 2007 the National Portrait Gallery launched the inaugural National Youth Self Portrait Prize and artists aged between eighteen and twenty-five were invited to submit self portraits using a variety of media including drawing, painting, printmaking and traditional or digital photography.
Meryl Tankard AO (b. 1955) is an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer, director and filmmaker.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the artist 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
The National Portrait Gallery is excited to announce that Perth photographer Elizabeth Looker has won the Art Handlers’ Award for this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize.
From 1967 until 1981 Matthew Perceval lived and painted in France and during those years produced a large body of portrait paintings.
When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.
To celebrate the National Portrait Gallery’s twentieth anniversary as an institution, twenty portraits of outstanding Australian individuals have been commissioned for the permanent collection. This is the largest undertaking for the Gallery’s commissioning program in its twenty-year existence.
The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled twenty new portrait commissions of Australian leaders and individualists as part of its twentieth birthday celebrations in a new exhibition, 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.
In light of recent and ongoing gallery closures brought on by the COVID pandemic, the NPG’s 2021 National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition season will be extended until 16 January next year.
Purchased 2017
In 2020 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Sally Robinson's remarkable portrait of author Tim Winton.
In this major new exhibition marking the National Portrait Gallery’s third decade, 23 Australian artists and collectives have been invited to create portraits without constraints or boundaries.
Andrew Sayers feels the warmth in the paintings Matthew Perceval made while the sun shone in southern France.
Anne Sanders and Christopher Chapman bring passionate characterisation to Express Yourself, the Portrait Gallery collection exhibition celebrating iconoclastic Australians.
Dr Helen Nugent AO, Chairman, National Portrait Gallery at the opening of 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.
Anne O’Hehir chats with artist Kim Leutwyler about courage, community and the ethics of looking.
Sharon Peoples contemplates costumes and the construction of identity.
The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.
Sarah Engledow trains her exacting lens on the nine photographs from 20/20.
Penelope Grist reminisces about the halcyon days of a print icon, before the infusion of the internet’s shades of grey.