About Us

Welcome to the National Gallery, Australia’s national visual arts institution dedicated to collecting, sharing and celebrating art from Australia and the world.

Home to the most valuable collection of art in Australia, the national collection comprises over 155,000 works of art, including the world’s largest collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. Our significant collection represents the whole of Australian art, modern art worldwide, particularly from Europe and America, and art from across Asia and the Pacific. The collection includes some of the finest examples in Australia of French Impressionism, Dada and Surrealism, the Russian avant-garde, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism and Conceptual Art.

Our aim is to inspire all Australians. Central to our vision is elevating women artists and First Nations culture. Expansive collection displays are accompanied by a dynamic program of exhibitions, national tours and cultural events that celebrate creative practice and deepen lifelong learning, in person and online.

Based in the nation’s capital, the Gallery sits on the southern shore of Lake Burley Griffin, on the lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, and within Canberra’s Parliamentary Triangle. Our heritage listed building, designed by award winning architect Colin Madigan AO, is a beacon of experimental design and exemplary Brutalist architecture.

Admission to the Gallery, including the Sculpture Garden planted with native flora and James Turrell’s Skyspace, is free and accessible. Fees may apply for special exhibitions.

Art is for all of us. It allows us to see the world in ways that expand our minds, provoke our ideas, ignite our imaginations. At the National Gallery we strive for cultural experiences that surprise, that disrupt convention, that deepen our understanding of the human condition and the world we live in.

We believe that art can change lives.

The National Gallery’s commitment to gender equity is core to the vision of the Gallery to inspire our nation through creativity, inclusivity, engagement and learning. Across Australia and the world, arts and cultural institutions are facing the lived realities of exclusions, inequities and histories that have shaped their collections, programs and foundational structures. We are now addressing the significant imbalances that exist.