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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Archie Moore is a celebrated Kamilaroi and Bigambul artist whose practice is embedded in the politics of identity, racism and language systems. Mīal is a conceptual self portrait that counters expectations of what a self portrait should be.

The exhibition will feature some of the most significant portraits in the artist’s career to date, from early major works such as his painting of HM Queen Mary of Denmark through to his most recent.

Marri Ngarr artist Ryan Presley's site-specific commission Paradise won is prominently positioned at the Gallery’s entrance. This ambitious new work invites conversations about the ongoing legacies of colonisation and celebrates First Nations survival and autonomy.

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.

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

The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG.

The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024 celebrates established and emerging artistic talent from across the country.

To mark the 2024 Paris Olympics, we are showcasing collection works that celebrate some of the exceptional athletes who have represented Australia at the Games over its long history.

The exhibition is a vibrant and dynamic exhibition by acclaimed contemporary artist Joan Ross. Transforming scenes from colonial artworks through a digital ‘cut and paste’ technique and her signature fluorescent yellow, Ross explores critical issues like climate change, greed and consumerism.

The 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.

Drop into the Gallery this Spring for free creative activities inspired by our vibrant exhibition Joan Ross: Those trees came back to me in my dreams.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Join Matt Finch as he considers three portraits in the collection that offer different gateways to worlds beyond, blending past, present and future.

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.

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.

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.

In collaboration with The Curatoreum, we invite you to celebrate the launch of Amber Creswell Bell’s newest book, About Face: Contemporary Portrait Painting in Australia and New Zealand.

This week, join Social Media & Content Coordinator Georgina Holt as she takes you through three contemplative portraits of Australians who have borne witness to some of the country’s, and the world’s, darkest moments.

Get ready to rock out with us this week as we journey through the epic world of Aussie rock legends from the 80s!

Discover the beauty that can be made from ‘waste’ paper with Jo Neville from Paper Couture.

Discover the beauty that can be made from ‘waste’ paper with Jo Neville from Paper Couture.

Welcome lovers of verse! Explore the intersection of literature and art as we delve into the words and works of renowned Australian poets and songwriters immortalised in the National Portrait Collection.

Draw while listening to live music by Tara Louise and Ben Lanyon as they perform a groovy mix of jazz, soul and pop music.

Join Australian National University researcher Harry Kilcullen as they explore groundbreakers of queer art and culture in the National Portrait Collection.

Join us as we take a deep dive into the world of double portraits. What will this unique form of portraiture reveal about the sitters and the artists?

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.

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.

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.

Join us for the opening of Carol Jerrems: Portraits to celebrate the work, life and legacy of one of Australia’s most influential photographers. See the exhibition for free, grab a drink and soak up the vibe of DJ Charlie Villas’ genre- and generation-bending beats.

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.

This 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.