CANBERRA.- Rick Amor 21 Portraits brings together paintings, prints and drawings spanning Rick Amor's thirty year career, confirming his status as one of Australia's great portrait artists.

Director Angus Trumble said 'It is wonderful to see the portraits of a single artist represented in an exhibition, especially one of Rick Amor's calibre.'

Rick Amor (b. 1948) has been a quiet presence in the Australian art scene for three decades. Alongside his consistent portrait practice, Amor is known particularly for his skill as a painter, creating enigmatic, ominous landscapes and cityscapes. 21 Portraits evokes Amor's broader practice: his professional commissions, his artistic circle in Melbourne, his periods abroad, his stern self-analysis and his brooding visions of the natural and built environment. The exhibition includes portraits of artists, poets, writers as well as four self portraits, reflecting Amor's broad interest in culture, politics and the written word.

Rick Amor has spent much of his artistic career working in Melbourne. Winning many prizes and grants, from 1975 to 1983 he produced a series of cartoons attacking the Fraser government, receiving valuable support from union members during a period of severe financial difficulty. After 1983 he began to paint more personal and emotionally charged works for which he has become known. In 1999, as Australia's first official war artist since Vietnam, he travelled to East Timor to document the devastated land and the reconstruction efforts of peacekeepers. The resulting works are in the collection of the Australian War Memorial.

A regular exhibitor and finalist in the Archibald prize, Amor's works are held in all major public collections in Australia. In 2008, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne held a survey show of Rick Amor's paintings and drawings.

The National Portrait Gallery's latest exhibition, Rick Amor 21 Portraits, draws portraits from both private collections and the Portrait Gallery's own collection.