WHO ARE YOU: Australian portraiture, National Portrait Gallery

Merging the traditional and unconventional, WHO ARE YOU: Australian Portraiture is a co-curated combination of collections from the National Gallery of Victoria and National Portrait Gallery. Featuring 130 works across painting, film, photography, screen printing, sculpture, and then some – it explores our inner worlds, outer selves, intimacy, isolation, celebrity and more.

You’ll see artists such as Patricia Piccinini, Atong Atem, Howard Arkley, Vincent Namatjira, John Nixon and Tracey Moffatt. Think superstar sitters like Albert Namatjira, Cate Blanchett, Queen Elizabeth II, David Gulpilil and Jeff the Wiggle. And why not both? We give you John Brack, Nora Heysen, William Yang and Shirley Purdie, just to name a few.

From head and shoulders to shape and text, this exhibition will have you thinking about the ever-evolving and ever-expanding idea of portraiture.

Person and Place

The connection between land and identity holds great significance in Australia. While for First Nations people, person and place are intertwined both culturally and spiritually, forming an intrinsic union between Country and self, stories of colonisation and migration are also deeply bound to this nation.

Meet the Artist

In its uniting of artist and sitter, the self-portrait is an intriguing facet of portraiture. The self-reflection is a format that appears to grant the viewer the assurance of revelation and intimate access to the artist’s psyche.

Inner Worlds, Outer Selves

Within a person’s psyche live memories, dreams, instincts, fears and fantasies. On the outside, although our identities may appear far less complicated, we are able to choose which parts of ourselves we wish to project.

Intimacy and Alienation

The relationship between artist and sitter is greatly intimate. Sometimes over many hours, the two occupy space with a distinct nearness; the artist observing and recording characteristics that are fleeting, and often unnoticed.

Adut, The Studio Series, 2015 Atong Atem

Icons and Identities

It’s often thought that foremost among portraiture’s many functions is the documentation of individuals who are celebrated and familiar, or who best exemplify the temper and identity of a certain place at a certain time.

Who are you?

Two people, two portraits, two collections, one question.

Related information

You are who?

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

Joanna Gilmour reflects on merging collections and challenging traditional assumptions around portraiture in WHO ARE YOU.

The story of us

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2022

Gallery directors Karen Quinlan and Tony Ellwood talk to Penelope Grist about the NPG and NGV collaborative exhibition, Who Are You: Australian Portraiture.

The work of art

In Galleries Eight and Nine

Previous exhibition, 2022

It takes a village to raise a creative! Get an insight into the often-unseen work and supporters needed for the arts to thrive. The work of art documents the creative process, evoke states of creativity and inspiration, and shows us clues about the subject’s own work from the way artists portray them.