2021

Installation view of Jeffrey Smart, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2021.
10 Dec 2021
Jeffrey Smart opens at the National Gallery
The National Gallery will celebrate the work and life of renowned Australian artist Jeffrey Smart with a major new exhibition, which opens to the public on Saturday 11 December 2021.

Dr Matilda House and Paul Girrawah House, Ngambri/Ngunnawal peoples, with scar tree, Kamberri/ Canberra, 2021 © the artists
25 Nov 2021
National Gallery announces new dates for National Indigenous Art Triennial
The 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony will open at the National Gallery of Australia on 26 March 2022 with a community celebration led by First Nations artists.

Artist Lindy Lee with a maquette of Ouroboros, 2021, courtesy the artist, photo by Zoe Wesolowski-Fisher
23 Sept 2021
National Gallery announces new Sculpture Garden commission by artist Lindy Lee
Australian artist Lindy Lee will look to the stars to create her most significant work to date, an immersive, public sculpture, the Ouroboros, for the National Gallery of Australia’s 40th anniversary.

Preston Lane, Point View House, Photographer: Adam Gibson
25 Aug 2021
Contemporary Australian Architects Speaker Series
With the built environment more important to Australians than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Contemporary Australian Architects Speaker Series will canvas issues including sustainability, public design and the transformative power of architecture this September.

Installation view of Mrs N. Yunupingu, Gumatj people, Djulpan (Seven Sisters), 2020, purchased 2021, © Mrs N. Yunupingu. Courtesy of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka, 2021
19 Aug 2021
National Gallery of Australia announces major new acquisitions
Continuing its commitment to build a National Collection, the National Gallery has acquired major new works by 28 leading contemporary artists including Kara Walker, A & A, Tony Albert and Dara Birnbaum.

Installation view of Sarah Lucas, TITTIPUSSIDAD, 2018, purchased 2021 in Project 1: Sarah Lucas at the National Gallery, 2021.
5 Aug 2021
Project 1: Sarah Lucas opens at the National Gallery of Australia
Opening this Saturday at the National Gallery of Australia, Project 1: Sarah Lucas brings together recent work by one of England’s most influential and unapologetic artists.
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29 Jul 2021
National Gallery of Australia returns 14 works of art to India
The National Gallery of Australia today announced it will return 14 works of art from its Asian art collection to the Indian Government.

22 July 2021
New National Gallery Art Cases to tour communities across regional Australia
The National Gallery of Australia’s Art Cases touring program has been expanded thanks to the support of the Neilson Foundation.

Printed 3 Cover
5 July 2021
Printed: Images by Australian Artists 1942-2020
The National Gallery of Australia has released the third and final volumein curator Roger Butler’s acclaimed series on thehistory of Australian prints and printmaking, Printed: Images by Australian Artists 1942-2020.

Jeffrey Smart, Self portrait, Procida, 1950–51, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 2016, © The Estate of Jeffrey Smart.
23 June 2021
Jeffrey Smart at 100 years
Acclaimed for his dynamic depiction of the 20th century urban experience, renowned Australian artist Jeffrey Smart will be celebrated in a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia marking the centenary of his birth this year.

Joel Bray, Dharawungara, 2018, performance, Chunky Move, Melbourne, image courtesy and © the artist, photograph: Bryony Jackson.
10 June 2021
35 artists take part in National Gallery's First Nations Art Triennial
National Gallery of Australia senior curator-at-large Hetti Perkins, an Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman, is collaborating with a team of Gallery curators for Ceremony, which opens in November 2021. More than 35 artists from around Australia will showcase the centrality of ceremony in their work and how it connects their community, culture, and country in the National Gallery of Australia’s fourth triennial celebrating First Nations art.

Anne Wallace, She Is, 2001, purchased 2002 © Anne Wallace
25 May 2021
Know Their Names! National Gallery announces three new exhibitions by women artists
The National Gallery of Australia continues to highlight the extraordinary contribution of women artists with the announcement of three new women-led exhibitions opening in mid-2021; part two of Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, Project 1: Sarah Lucas and touring exhibition Spowers & Syme.

Patricia Piccinini, Skywhale, 2013 and Skywhalepapa, 2020, © Patricia Piccinini
1 Apr 2021
Skywhales National Touring Program Announced
From metropolitan cities to rural Australia, Skywhales: Every heart sings is a National Gallery of Australia Touring Event that will reach audiences across the country, made possible by our National Tour Principal Partner The Naomi Milgrom Foundation, with the support of Visions of Australia.

23 Mar 2021
Kids X Van Gogh: Recreate Sunflowers and Win
The National Gallery of Australia and oOh!media are inviting artists from primary and secondary schools to create their own version of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers for the Kids x Van Gogh challenge.

3 Mar 2021
Australian exclusive: Radiant European masterpieces light up the National Gallery
For this year’s Enlighten Festival, the National Gallery of Australia has commissioned Sydney-based artist Joan Ross to explore – and explode – the museum.

Joan Ross, still from the I give you a mountain video animation, 2018, image courtesy of the artist
26 Feb 2021
Joan Ross explores – and explodes – the National Gallery
For this year’s Enlighten Festival, the National Gallery of Australia has commissioned Sydney-based artist Joan Ross to explore – and explode – the museum.

Robert Freson ‘Joan Mitchell in her Vétheuil studio’, 1983, Joan Mitchell Foundation Archives, New York. © Joan Mitchell Foundation
17 Feb 2021
Joan Mitchell: Worlds of Colour opens at National Gallery
The National Gallery of Australia presents Joan Mitchell: Worlds of Colour – the first major exhibition on the international artist to ever be held in Australia.

7 Feb 2021
National Gallery of Australia unveils Skywhalepapa to the nation
The National Gallery and artist Patricia Piccinini today unveiled Skywhalepapa, a new hot air balloon sculpture by the renowned artist and the most ambitious commission by an Australian woman to enter the national collection.

Artist Patricia Piccinini standing inside Skywhalepapa 2020, commissioned with the assistance of The Balnaves Foundation 2019, purchased 2020 © Patricia Piccinini
3 Feb 2021
Skywhales flight postponed until Sunday 7 February
Skywhales: Every heart sings – the first ever flight of Skywhalepapa and Skywhale together – has been postponed until Sunday 7 February due to forecast unsuitable weather conditions.

22 Jan 2021
Patricia Piccinini's Skywhalepapa to take maiden flight over Canberra in February
The National Gallery of Australia will unveil Skywhalepapa, the companion piece to artist Patricia Piccinini’s iconic 2013 hot air balloon sculpture Skywhale, on 6 February 2021.