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National Portrait Gallery 🖼️ Home of Australian Portraiture
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The National Portrait Gallery, situated on King Edward Terrace, Parkes, Canberra, bounded by the High Court of Australia and the National Gallery of Australia, displays some 400 portraits of people who have shaped Australia and who continue to shape our nation. Home to the nation's portrait collection the National Portrait Gallery comprises gallery spaces for the collection and temporary exhibitions, public areas including a café, shop, function room, theatrette, education and school group areas, and basement car parking. To ensure that we keep our online community safe, we have developed a number of SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE COMMUNITY GUIDELINES:

We reserve the right to hide or remove any comments that:
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Users who are found to breach the above guidelines may have their account, and any others they make, banned or blocked from this page. These rules are applicable to participation on all National Portrait Gallery platforms, including:
- Social Media (e.g. Google Business, TripAdvisor)
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For more information: https://www.portrait.gov.au/content/social-media-and-community-guidelines/

15/10/2026

If you were composing a portrait, which subject and object would you choose to pair together?

We understand why people take their time viewing this portrait.20th-century Australian artist Arthur Boyd created expres...
13/10/2026

We understand why people take their time viewing this portrait.

20th-century Australian artist Arthur Boyd created expressive, vigorously painted works that capture raw inner emotion and deep symbolism.

In 'Potter by his kiln' Boyd has painted his father, the pioneering ceramicist Merric Boyd (1888–1959), who is widely regarded as Australia’s first studio potter. Set against a deep, blue evening, there is a quiet tragedy held in this work. The portrait relates to a childhood memory and evokes themes Boyd would engage with throughout his career: loss, shame and the impulse to create.

Boyd recalled that as a child he tried to help his father by secretly adding coal to his father’s kiln, hoping to see more smoke. When Merric Boyd opened the kiln, he discovered that many of the pots had been smoke-damaged. Exhausted and distressed, he collapsed beside it in an epileptic seizure.

Arthur later admitted, ‘To this day I feel great guilt.’

This portrait reflects and transforms a childhood memory into a meditation on artistic inheritance, and the complex yet enduring bond between father and son.

After seeing this mesmerising work in Gallery 3, be sure to explore more of Boyd's artistry with our friends at the National Gallery - their 'Arthur Boyd: Tapestries' exhibition is only on for a few more days!

12/10/2026

'At first glance seems incredibly ordinary'

Yvonne Todd is renowned for highly stylised and edited photographs that subtly distort our sense of reality.

In 'The Wall of Man', each sitter was dressed by the artist in suits bought from local op shops. The ostensible banality of the images is further undercut by discrete details. Look a little closer to see the eerie glow of the Image Consultant’s eyes, or the Senior Executive’s missing fingertip. Incrementally, the familiar becomes unfamiliar, such that these seemingly conventional representations of male authority and corporate power are undermined.

On show in 'Power Suits: The fit within the frame' exhibition.

08/10/2026

'This is a whole world of alternative thinking and music and art that I'm delighted to share'

'Brainstorm: Inside the mind of Andy Griffiths' is an immersive space of weird and wonderful treasures from Andy’s personal writing room that inspire his hilarious books.

Speaking about his items in the Gallery, Andy says,

'I love the way you've all looked after my stupid little objects that have been picked up from junk shops over the years... now treated with white gloves and beautiful lighting, that delights me no end.'

FINAL DAYS of the National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition!This final iteration of the prize is a reminder of the...
07/10/2026

FINAL DAYS of the National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition!

This final iteration of the prize is a reminder of the abundance of photographic talent in Australia! Hosting the prize over 19 years has been a pleasure and we are truly grateful to the photographic community, the subjects who have generously shared their stories and of course the photographers who put their everything into their art.

We can't wait to share the details of the Gallery's new prize but for now, be sure to come down to celebrate this year's finalists as well as see some of the previous finalists in a retrospective hang.

Exhibition ends Sunday 11 October 2026, don't miss it!

05/10/2026

Making a mark.

In the final episode of Portrait Artist of the Year, Harley Kirkwood is given something he's never seen before: his great-grandfather's pencil.

Stream Portrait Artist of the Year on ABC iview and see the winning commission at the National Portrait Gallery from October 5.

05/10/2026

We have a winner!

Jasmine Lancaster, the youngest artist in this year's competition, won over the judges in our final episode with her pencil and pastel portrait of INXS rock legend Kirk Pengilly.

Stream Portrait Artist of the Year on ABC iview and see the winning commission at the National Portrait Gallery from October 5.

Wow! Wow! Wow! Congratulations to WINNER Jasmine Lancaster Merton. Aged just 17, Jasmine skipped school camp to become...
05/10/2026

Wow! Wow! Wow!

Congratulations to WINNER Jasmine Lancaster Merton. Aged just 17, Jasmine skipped school camp to become the youngest competitor to share her flair.

What an honour to have this glowing portrait of actor, singer, television host and author Justine Clarke on view in the Gallery. A special shout out to all the artists who participated, the world deserves more art!

If anyone needs us we'll be off rewatching the first two seasons on ABC iview and getting our popcorn ready for season 3.

SEASON 2 FINALE!Don't miss this wholesome (and nail-biting) episode of with celebrity sitter, Australian rock music ic...
04/10/2026

SEASON 2 FINALE!

Don't miss this wholesome (and nail-biting) episode of with celebrity sitter, Australian rock music icon Kirk Pengilly. Well done to all the artists too, pressure cookers have never looked so fabulous!

Stream on ABC iview or tune into ABC TV at 7:30pm.

🎨 Winner's commission on show at the Gallery on MONDAY!

02/10/2026

'Even that inner kid has an inner kid'

Once upon a time, in a not-so-faraway land, there was a Gallery that decided to commission a portrait of children's author Andy Griffiths by Ronnie van Hout!

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