Opened in 1982 and renovated in 2010, Australia’s national gallery houses important Australian, Indigenous, Pacific, Asian, American and European masterpieces, including Jackson Pollock’s ‘Blue Poles’ and Constantin Brancusi’s ‘Bird in Space’. In 2015, the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) established a department of contemporary international arts practice, focusing on post-millennial art, particularly moving image, performance and installation.
It's worth the trek to Canberra for the NGA’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection – the largest in the world, comprised of over 7,500 works, and displayed in a purpose-built wing. In fact, the first artwork you encounter as you step into the NGA’s foyer is the Ramingining artists’ ‘Aboriginal Memorial’ (1987-88), an installation featuring 200 hollow log coffins from central Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. Unveiled in conjunction with the Bicentenary, the work commemorates the deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across 200 years of colonisation.
The NGA forecourt is also home to 'Ouroboros', Australia’s most expensive public artwork by artist Lindy Lee. This spectacular $14 million masterpiece was commissioned to celebrate the NGA’s 40th anniversary in 2022 and stands 4.2 metres high, weighing 13 tonnes.
The other major must-see at the NGA is the Sculpture Garden, which features work by Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Clement Meadmore, Inge King and more. If you visit Marsh Pond between 12.30pm and 2pm, you’ll see Fujiko Nakaya's fog sculpture in eerie operation, sending waves of mist over the 66 bronze heads, emerging from the water, that comprise Indonesian artist Dadang Christanto’s ‘Heads from the North’ memorial (2004).