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National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025

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.

In Bloom

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.

The Immersive World of Thom Roberts

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.

The National Portrait Gallery Collection

Browse the full list of portraits from the collection that are on view now.

Carol Jerrems: Portraits

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.

if only we could take the time: contemporary Australian photography

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.

Gallery Two

Gallery One

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.

Joan Ross

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.

Some Lads

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.

wani toaishara: a most beautiful experiment

A most beautiful experiment responds to Congolese photographer Jean Depara’s documentation of Kinshara’s nightlife in the 1960s.

Darling Portrait Prize 2024

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

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024

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

Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2024

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.

Ryan Presley: Paradise won

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.

Ralph Heimans

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.