Art Gallery of New South Wales

The Art Gallery of New South Wales stands in the Domain, the parkland between the city and Woolloomooloo Bay, a short walk from the Botanic Garden. Founded in 1871, it holds the finest public collection of Australian art alongside strong holdings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, European painting from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, Asian art and a growing international contemporary collection. Entry to the collection is free.

Since December 2022 the gallery has been two buildings joined by a public art garden. The older building, now called Naala Nura, is the sandstone temple with the classical portico that Walter Liberty Vernon began in 1896; inside it are the Grand Courts, a set of Victorian galleries with skylights and deep red walls where the historic Australian and European paintings hang. The new building, Naala Badu, was designed by the Japanese architects SANAA and steps down the slope towards the harbour in a series of glass pavilions, ending in a converted wartime oil tank that has become an underground gallery. The Yiribana gallery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art moved into the new building's entrance level, so that Indigenous art is the first thing many visitors see.

A first visit works well as a loop: begin under the columns of Naala Nura with the Grand Courts, cross the garden past the Kusama flowers to Naala Badu, descend through the contemporary galleries and finish in the Tank. Allow three hours, and longer if a major exhibition is on.