Here’s Rolf Harris (or is it Sir Rolf?) doing his thing for the National Portrait Gallery Festival of the Face which is drawing the crowds for the NPG’s first weekend, which follows the series of previews and openings which have been happening all this week.

At such events the National Portrait Gallery (designed by Richard Johnson of Johnson Pilton Walker) has been seen for the first time by the many enthusiastic visitors and the Canberrans who’ve been watching its progress over the past year or so. On Wednesday night the official opening by the Prime Minister was eloquently bracketed by Director Andrew Sayers and outgoing Chair Marilyn Darling. It was a symbolic changing of the guard. The new Patron is Ms Therese Rein. The previous Patron was Mrs Janette Howard. She and her husband Mr John mingled in the crowd of luminaries, artists and their subjects. It’s a tale of the two plaques: the foundation plaque outside with John Howard’s name, the opening plaque on the inside with Kevin Rudd engraved for posterity.

The building is a pleasure to experience. It has great proportions, beautiful use of materials, elegant spaces and vistas, and a modest lack of egotistical interference with the art. Its theme is vernacular modern, in that its wooden roof trusses are exposed in the foyer ceiling, and their forms are reflected in the plywood cladding of their exterior surfaces.

The shed metaphor is referenced by the giant “corrugated iron” roofing, which projects horizontally for some distance beyond the roof structure, and is the most assertive motif as you walk up the slope to the entrance. It’s cheeky, but engaging, and draws attention to the beautiful use of materials and building finishes throughout. Notice how the use of wood is assuming new symbolic significance and a contemporary value? These days, we see wood as a rare resource. In this context gives references both to the past (the vernacular, hand skills) and the future – natural resources, even carbon capture. It’s also warm, tactile, and engaging.

Like Johnson’s pavilion of Asian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the forms, spaces, and materials of the building sit modestly in relation to the art on the walls, a perfect frame for its contemplation. It does what Gallery architecture should do – it creates the spaces for the kinds of aesthetic experiences that are its raison d’etre – but it also asserts itself as a sensuous bodily experience. It rivals the Lawrence Wilson Gallery at the University of WA as the best medium-sized gallery space in the country.

And Jaynie Anderson contributes the “portrait” of the day – celebs and luminaries don’t distract Daniel Thomas from a good book!  (And thanks to Jaynie for the shot of the new guard up on stage). We can report the coffee is good, but we declined the sausage rolls. Nevertheless, it’s a must-see. We’ll review the contents next week.