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.

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

Discover 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.

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.

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.

Join a short introductory tour of the National Portrait Gallery and discover a few key portraits.

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.

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.

Explore 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.

Celebrating connection and collaboration, stay warm inside and out this winter with a new season of Drawn in at the National Portrait Gallery.

Atem’s major new commission The Last Women embodies the artist’s vibrant style of staged studio portraiture.

On show in Gallery 3, One-on-one showcases portraits of pairs from the collection from the 1800s to today.

Drop into the Gallery for free artmaking activities inspired by the exhibition In Bloom.

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 in the Gallery for a conversation with artist Samuel Hodge to celebrate his newly commissioned portrait of Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales, the duo behind fashion label, Romance Was Born.

Join Visitor Experience Assistant Samantha Taulealeausumai as she amplifies the voices of three contemporary painters, translating the power of pigment into the emotive language of colour.

Discover the art and history behind relief printmaking with Visitor Experience Assistant Quinton Randall.

We offer a free, tailor-made program for small groups of people living with dementia and their friends, families or carers.

Join us as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of ABC Radio National’s ‘The Science Show’ with Robyn Williams.

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.

The NPPP is an annual prize for Australian photographers. The year’s most outstanding photographic portrait is awarded a $30,000 cash prize and photographic equipment valued at $20,000 courtesy of our Imaging Partner, Canon Australia.

Join us on the opening day of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 for a series of artist floor talks in the galleries.

Join Visitor Experience Assistant, Kat for an insightful discussion on the symbolism of skulls in three portraits from the Gallery’s collection.

Explore this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize with exhibition curator, Rebecca Blake.

Enjoy drawing to the infectious grooves of Lara and Matt of Love Maps as they deliver their signature high-energy pop rock sound in an intimate, stripped-down format.

Explore the Gallery at a quiet time of day.

Join exhibition curator Rebecca Blake for an introduction to National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025, as she explores the key themes, ideas and preparation process behind the exhibition.

Join retired Pacific Collections Librarian, Deveni Temu, for an insightful exploration of Elizabeth Durack’s remarkable artworks created during her 1968 visit to PNG.

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.

Explore the Gallery at a quiet time of day.

Join Melissa Malu, Head of Pasifika Collections & Engagement at the Australian Museum, as she discusses community identity and what portraiture means to her from a Tongan and Fijian context.

Explore the Gallery at a quiet time of day.

Super Kaylene Whiskey celebrates one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, proud Yankunytjatjara woman Kaylene Whiskey.

Explore the Gallery at a quiet time of day.

Explore the Gallery at a quiet time of day.