Search / sydney ure smith

2023 Annual Appeal

In 2023 the Annual Appeal was focussed on a work by one of Australia's best loved and most successful portrait painters, Judy Cassab AO CBE, depicting model, entrepreneur and deportment icon, June Dally-Watkins OAM.

Patricia Piccinini

Patricia Piccinini was born in Sierra Leone and grew up in Canberra. She received a BFA from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne in 1991. In 1994 she initiated The Basement Project Gallery in Melbourne, which she coordinated until 1996. Her 2003 exhibition We Are Family represented Australia at the 50th Venice Biennale.

Margaret Seares, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018

Ron Mueck

Ron Mueck grew up in Melbourne and began a career in puppetry and special-effects based in the US and then London. In the mid-1990s Charles Saatchi commissioned four major works including Dead dad, which were exhibited in Saatchi’s exhibition ‘Sensation’ at the Royal Academy, London and which travelled to Berlin and Brooklyn.

Gail Kelly, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Westpac Group and Optus 2018

Gary Grealy wins National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017

After months of anticipation, the winner for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 has been announced with renowned Sydney portrait photographer Gary Grealy taking out the award. George Fetting, guest judge for the 2017 Prize, was entranced with the evocative nature of the winning portrait Richard Morecroft and Alison Mackay.

TERROIR

TERROIR directors Gerard Reinmuth, Scott Balmforth and Richard Blythe believe that the practice of architecture is the production of knowledge.

Rugby great unveiled

A new portrait commission of Australian Rugby great, Ken Catchpole OAM by Gary Grealy will be officially unveiled on 3 December.

The Waxworks

Waxworks were among the various types of entertainment venue to emerge in Australian cities in the mid-nineteenth century. 

Portrait Gallery unveils new commission

The National Portrait Gallery unveiled its most recent portrait commission for the collection on Thursday 30 November 2017.

Oz Indie

It was the era of recording your favourite songs directly from the radio; of seeing the latest acts and clips on Countdown; and when the Aussie bands you saw on TV and heard in the charts were the ones you could see live at the pub.

Anthony Anderton

An interview with the photographer.

The National Portrait Prizes

The National Portrait Gallery today announced finalists for the inaugural Darling Portrait Prize, a national new $75,000 prize for Australian portrait painting, and released selected images from the final prize pool for the popular National Photography Portrait Prize.

Equation of a life – a portrait of Derek Denton

The National Portrait Gallery, has welcomed the newest portrait commission of Emeritus Professor Derek Denton AC by Evert Ploeg.

Portrait Donors

The 1890s to the 1940s

Although the tough, weathered, hard-drinking bushmen of the kind mythologised by writers like Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson are popularly associated with the character of late nineteenth century Australia, it was also a time when alternative ideas about identity began to come into play.