Stories from Australian’s of the Year

By Jemma Mrdak.

The National Portrait Gallery is currently showcasing Awesome Achievers: Stories from Australian’s of the Year, an exhibition celebrating the talent, passion and achievement of epic Aussies. The exhibition has pooled a heap of portraits from the National Portrait Gallery collection, as well as works supplied by other galleries and private collections and whacked them all together to create one massive, super portrait showcase.

This exhibition has a unique selection of portraits of Australian of the Year recipients from wide range of fields. Expect to see sports icon Adam Goodes next to Alan Jones next to John Farnham, Polly Borland, Lee Kernaghan, Ian Jennings, Pat McGorry and Dave Tacon – and the list goes on.

What’s interesting is that each portrait portrays a different stage of life for each of the recipients and captures their unique personalities. This is the National Portrait Gallery’s way of generally showing some love to these awesome Aussies, but also increasing awareness and understanding about their identities, cultural backgrounds, history and achievements. Spend an hour or spend the day wandering through this exhibition, it’s pretty damn impressive.

“Celebrate and be inspired by talent, passion and achievement – and triumph over adversity. Developed as a touring exhibition to regional Australia, Awesome Achievers includes major portraits drawn from the National Portrait Gallery collection, supplemented by works from private and institutional sources” – National Portrait Gallery

Awesome Achievers runs from February 12 – March 27, 2016. Bookings are not required.