© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
In the flesh
Previous exhibition, 2014
In the flesh is an enthralling and immersive experience of contemporary art that confronts the concept of humanness and the experiences of consciousness and emotion. Featuring ten Australian artists including Jan Nelson, Patricia Piccinini, Ron Mueck and Michael Peck, the exhibition explores themes of intimacy, empathy, transience, transition, vulnerability, alienation, restlessness, reflection, mortality and acceptance.
Tough & Tender
Previous exhibition, 2016
Art by Warwick Baker, Chris Burden, Larry Clark, Rozalind Drummond, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe and Collier Schorr explores personal relations, individual expression and fluid identity.
Mysterious eyes
Arthur Boyd portraits from 1945
Previous exhibition, 2016
Boyd’s self-portrait at age 25 is joined by his equally emotive portraits of those around him.
Rennie Ellis
Aussies All
Previous exhibition, 2006
Rennie Ellis: Aussies All is a celebration of the life and work of the late Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.
Glossy - Faces Magazines Now
Previous exhibition, 1999
Magazines are the portrait galleries of the 90s... Glossy is about magazines. The exhibition presents the work of eight photographers, Australian by birth or long-term residency, who are producing portraits for publication in magazines around the world.
Vanity Fair Portraits
Photographs 1913-2008
Previous exhibition, 2009
Vanity Fair Portraits traces the birth and evolution of photographic portraiture through the archives of Vanity Fair magazine.
To Look Within
Self Portraits in Australia
Previous exhibition, 2004
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
Primed
Some Prime Ministers
Previous exhibition, 2019
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.