NGA honours contemporary Australian art

Since 1982 Australian contemporary art has been confined to an awkward attic space in Canberra's National Gallery of Australia.

But in Ron Radford's final act as NGA director, the gallery's rapidly expanding collection will now get the proper attention it deserves.

Radford, who steps down as director at the end of September, launched the gallery's new art space NGA Contemporary on Thursday.

A stepping stone to the grander vision of a dedicated Centre for Australian Art, the small gallery is crammed with work from contemporary stars like Ron Mueck, Patricia Piccinini, Tracey Moffatt and Bill Henson.

While the space overlooking Lake Burley Griffin won't replace the collection of contemporary Australian art in the nearby main gallery, Radford says it will for now act as Canberra's museum of contemporary art.

"I'm very pleased that my last exhibition is an Australian contemporary show with living Australian artists," he said.

"Living Australian artists are the creative lifeblood of our nation, not our sports stars or our pop stars or our celebrities."