© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
Before hand
The private life of a portrait
Previous exhibition, 2020
Revealing the backstories behind the NPG collection, Before hand features interviews with artists and sitters as well as working drawings, scrapbooks, sketches and footage taken in artists’ studios and out on location.
National Youth Self Portrait Prize
NYSPP 2008
Previous exhibition, 2008
At the end of 2007 the National Portrait Gallery launched the inaugural National Youth Self Portrait Prize and artists aged between eighteen and twenty-five were invited to submit self portraits using a variety of media including drawing, painting, printmaking and traditional or digital photography.
Living Memory
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2021
Previous exhibition, 2021
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.
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023
Previous exhibition, 2023
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.
Headspace 1
Previous exhibition, 2000
Headspace showcases portrait art produced by secondary students from Year 7 to Year 12 in Government, Catholic and Independent schools in Canberra and its surrounding regions extending to Wollongong, Deniliquin, Leeton, Crookwell, Bombala, Narooma and Albury
Face the Music
Previous exhibition, 2005
Australia has become recognised for the range and talent of its musicians, composers, conductors and celebrities in general associated with the music industry
Headspace 4
Facing Memory
Previous exhibition, 2003
Facing Memory: Headspace 4 provides us with valuable insights into the thoughts, creative processes and art-making practices of secondary students from Year 7 to Year 12 from sixty-two schools in the Australian Capital Territory, regional New South Wales and Victoria
The Reflecting Eye
Portraits of Australian Visual Artists
Touring exhibition, 1996
As the first National Portrait Gallery travelling exhibition, The reflecting eye: portraits of Australian visual artists represents an important milestone in the history of Australia's National Portrait Gallery.
Intimate Portraits
Previous exhibition, 2002
Intimate Portraits is an exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints that explore the less public side of portraiture
Max Dupain
The Vintage Years
Previous exhibition, 2003
During his long and distinguished career Max Dupain took thousands of photographs of people
Icons
Parliament House
Touring exhibition, 2019
When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.
Judy Cassab
The artist's diary
Previous exhibition, 2013
The artist's diary profiles six decades of Cassab's work, from the early portrait commissions of the 1950s to later paintings that have helped confirm her eminent place in the canon of Australian portraiture.
Sir William Dargie
A Ninetieth Birthday Tribute
Previous exhibition, 2002
As a tribute to Sir William Dargie's singular contribution to Australian art and cultural institutions, and on the occasion of his birthday, The Australian War Memorial, Parliament House and the National Portrait Gallery will mount exhibitions of his work between May and October
So Fine
Contemporary women artists make Australian history
Previous exhibition, 2018
This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.
A Tribute to William Dobell
Previous exhibition, 1999
Adapted from A Tribute to William Dobell an exhibition presented by the Australian National University's Drill Hall Gallery in association with the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, The National Gallery of Australia, and the Australian War Memorial. Dobell is of course, celebrated for his achievements in portraiture, winning the Archibald prize (1943, 1948 and 1959), the Wynne Prize (1948), and representing Australia at the 1954 Venice Biennale. Curator Mary Eagle concludes her essay in the catalogue of the exhibition thus, "Overall I see a dissonance in Dobell’s art and life
National Youth Self Portrait Prize
NYSPP 2009
Previous exhibition, 2009
An annual event, the National Youth Self Portrait Prize seeks to encourage young people to embrace self portraiture and its expressive possibilities.