© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
Black Gold
The Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame
Previous exhibition, 2001
Reflecting the breadth and diversity of Aboriginal and Islander achievement within and beyond the world of sport, this exhibition tells the little known tales of triumph over adversity.
Mayatjara by Robert Fielding
In Gallery One
Previous exhibition, 2022
The series captures Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Traditional Owners and custodians, respected and significant leaders, advocates and artists within the communities of the APY Lands.
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.
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007
Previous exhibition, 2007
Photography is the most pervasive and popular medium for portraiture and makes a natural fit with the Gallery, being a natural extension of the Gallery's longstanding commitment to photography as a contemporary portrait medium.
Recognition
Percy Leason's Aboriginal Portraits
Previous exhibition, 1999
Originally conceived as an anthropological record, Percy Leason’s powerful 1934 portraits of Victorian Aboriginal people are today considered to be a highlight of 20th century Australian portraiture
Dancer
Touring exhibition, 2024
From letting loose in the lounge room to enthralling audiences on stage, this exhibition captures the experience of lives lived through dance.
Some Lads
In Gallery Four
Current exhibition
The 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.
Elvis At 21
Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer
Previous exhibition, 2013
Elvis at 21 is a photographic exhibition capturing Elvis’ rise to fame in the year 1956, before security and money built walls between him and his fans.
Heads of the People
A Portrait of Colonial Australia
Previous exhibition, 2000
For Tom Roberts - Australia's best nineteenth-century portrait painter - neither a proto-national portrait gallery nor more popular collections of portrait heads, were sufficient public celebrations for the notables of Australian history
Polly Borland
Australians
Previous exhibition, 2001
Polly Borland: Australians, is an exhibition of 54 new portraits of significant Australians who have made a contribution to British life and who have largely made their home or based their professional life in the UK
Collection in focus: Brook Andrew
Previous exhibition, 2017
Experience the artistic clout of Brook Andrew’s portraits of Marcia Langton AM and Anthony Mundine.
Of Kings and men
Celebrating 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection
Previous exhibition, 2011
This display celebrates 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection and its role in commissioning portraits of parliamentary and judicial figures in Australia.
Between Light and Shadow
Portraits by Stuart Campbell
Previous exhibition, 2011
The late Australian photographer Stuart Campbell produced superb photographs of Australian actors of stage and screen.
The Possibilities of Portraiture
Previous exhibition, 1999
What does 'portraiture mean at the end of the 20th century? At the outset of building a national portrait collection it seems an appropriate question to investigate.
Headspace 3
Being Me
Previous exhibition, 2002
The self-portrait enables students to explore emerging and changing aspects of their own identity, their sense of self, their place in the world, their experience of being human
All that fall
Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War
Previous exhibition, 2015
Focussing on the wide-ranging theme of loss and absence, this exhibition provides a moving ‘portrait’ of loss during the First World War on the Australian home front. Powerful symbolic images, including contemporary works, evoke the emotional intensity of loss. All that fall: Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War is the National Portrait Gallery’s contribution to the Anzac Centenary.