Get ready for things to get wonderfully weird at the National Portrait Gallery these school holidays.

Whether your household spent the early years devouring The Day My Bum Went Psycho or obsessing over The 13-Storey Treehouse, one of Australia’s most iconic storytellers is officially taking over Canberra’s premier hall of faces.

Unveiling late this month, a major new 3D-printed portrait of Australian Children’s Laureate Andy Griffiths is setting up shop at the Gallery — and he isn’t coming alone.

Accompanying the surreal sculpture by artist Ronnie van Hout is a portal straight into Griffiths’ creative vault, launching with a massive (and blissfully free) family day.

Griffiths is one of Australia’s most beloved authors and his books have topped the New York Times bestseller list, scooped up 80 children’s choice awards, morphed into an animated TV series and moved a staggering 13 million copies across Australia and New Zealand.

The portrait itself — a kaleidoscopic, “surreal collision of punk rock aesthetics and childhood imagination” is a fittingly unconventional collision of two of Australia and New Zealand’s most irreverent creative minds.

In the large-scale sculpture, a standing Andy holds two mini-me versions in his hand, while a fourth Andy gazes down at himself from the branches of a tree in a nod to his famous Treehouse series.

“This is a commission that challenges conventional expectations of portraiture because it really extends beyond pure likeness … It’s a place where fact, fiction, and portraiture collide,” Gallery Senior Curator Serena Bentley says.

“Both Griffiths and van Hout have this real kinship around music, particularly an interest in punk music and the sentiments of punk, and fuse their respective practices — particularly the sentiments of being transgressive, pushing the boundaries, creating work where anything goes, and where difference is promoted and accepted.”

Before you even lay eyes on the commission, however, you enter the warm-up act: the “Brainstorm” space.

Visitors will also meet the artist whose surreal works make weird look effortless — Ronnie van Hout. Photo: NPG.

An interactive gateway into the writer’s brain, this dedicated interactive space features more than 130 books, toys and curiosities that have fuelled Griffiths’ unique brand of creativity.

“It’s a space that’s about entering into Andy Griffiths’ mind to get some understanding of where ideas or inspiration comes from,” Bentley explains.

To curate it, gallery staff, Griffiths, and his partner Jill spent hours sifting through the op-shop finds and weird relics the author has assembled in his personal writing room over the years.

“For him, how you might assemble these little objects in new and unexpected ways has been a means of generating ideas,” Bentley says. “By the end of the day, we were in this really interesting rhythm where we were assembling objects, and I don’t know how you can articulate why a banana with eyes, a ball of fingers and a Godzilla with a baby’s head works together, but it just does.”

The public is invited to celebrate the new portrait and interactive space at the Gallery’s annual family day, Art.Make.Create, timed for the school holidays.

Billed as a “seriously silly day,” this celebration of creativity, imagination and storytelling leans hard into Griffiths’ trademark brand of chaotic creativity.

Presiding over the official unveiling will be Griffiths and van Hout themselves, in conversation with gallery director Bree Pickering.

Afterwards, Griffiths will lead a session packed with stories, banter, laughter and a book signing.

“That will be a high-energy, interactive session to get everyone laughing and in the mood for a super silly day,” gallery program development lead Ellie Brotchie says. “Definitely bring your Andy books in to be signed.”

Longtime Griffiths illustrator Bill Hope will also host live drawing workshops and creative portraiture demonstrations. Visitors can wander over to the Scribbletorium — a Treehouse-inspired room where scribbling on (almost) every surface isn’t just allowed, it’s encouraged.

Rounding out the day is a book swap, temporary tattoo stations, interactive tours, live rock ‘n’ roll from Bunny Racket, food trucks and a dedicated quiet hour from 3 to 4 pm.

“We want people to walk away feeling inspired and encouraged to celebrate being a little weird, a little silly,” Brotchie says. “And to know that creativity looks different for everyone. There’s no shortage of ideas, or ways to express them. We hope we can cultivate that.”

The portrait of Andy Griffiths and Brainstorm: Inside the Mind of Andy Griffiths space will be on display through to mid-2027. Andy Griffiths: art.make.create will be held on Saturday 26 September, and some activities continue throughout the September school holidays.