As part of North Terrace cultural precinct, the gallery is flanked by the South Australian Museum to the west and the University of Adelaide to the east.

In 1880 Parliament gave £2,000 to the institute to start acquiring a collection and the National Gallery of South Australia was established in June 1881[2] with 22 works purchased at the Melbourne International Exhibition, together with others lent by Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales, the British Government and private collectors.

The building was designed by C. E. Owen Smyth in Classical Revival style, built by Trudgen Brothers,[a] and opened by the Governor, Lord Tennyson on 7 April 1900.

[4] Major extensions in 1962 (including a three-storey air-conditioned addition on the northern side), 1979 (general refurbishment, in time for its centenary in 1981) and 1996 (large expansion) increased the gallery's display, administrative and ancillary facilities further.

He also hung We Are All Flesh, an epoxy resin sculpture of two headless horses by Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere, from the ceiling of the gallery, which attracted much press coverage.

[14][15][16][17] His achievements included curating the highly successful 2014 Adelaide Biennial,[15][17] the purchase of Camille Pissarro's Prairie à Eragny, with its A$4.5 million price raised from donations only.

[17] After the departure of Mitzevich, who left to lead the National Gallery of Australia in April 2018, the first female director in the history of AGSA was appointed.

On 22 October of that year, Australian-born Rhana Devenport ONZM started her appointment[18] after leaving the Auckland Art Gallery, where she had been director since 2013.

[20] In June 2024, Lisa Slade, who joined the gallery in 2011 as project curator and was appointed assistant director, artistic programs, in 2015, announced her departure from 3 July 2024, after being appointed Hugh Ramsay Chair in Australian Art History at the University of Melbourne,[21] a position based in the Art History Program in the School of Culture and Communication.

[1] Lindy Lee's 6-metre (20 ft) sculpture "The Life of Stars" is mounted on the forecourt of the gallery, after being presented for the 2018 Biennial, Divided Worlds.

[27] Created in Shanghai in 2015, the sculpture's polished stainless steel surface reflects its surroundings during the day[28] and radiates light at night.

The collection is strong in nineteenth-century works (including silverware and furniture) and in particular Australian Impressionist (often referred to as Heidelberg School) paintings.

[31][32] Heidelberg school works include Tom Roberts' A break away!, Charles Conder's A holiday at Mentone, and Arthur Streeton's Road to Templestowe.

Works by British portrait painters include Robert Peake, Anthony van Dyck, Peter Lely and Thomas Gainsborough.

The exhibition today still projects Thomas' vision, with the most noticeable difference being that the current version has a theme and a catchy title.

[40] The 2014 Biennial was titled "Dark Heart", an examination of changing national sensibilities, mounted by director Nick Mitzevitch, with 28 artists exhibiting.

Paintings, photography, sculpture, textiles, film, video, sound art, installation, and performance art by 23 artists were featured, including work by Abdul Abdullah, Stelarc, David Noonan, Garry Stewart and Australian Dance Theatre,[46][47] Megan Cope, Karla Dickens, Julia Robinson, performance artist Mike Parr, Polly Borland, Willoh S. Weiland, Yhonnie Scarce (whose work In the Dead House was installed in the old Adelaide Lunatic Asylum morgue building in the Botanic Garden[48][49]) and others.

The theme was inspired by the history of South Australia as a "free colony", and also had resonances with states of being and psychology, and contrasting ideas of freedom.

Other artists featured include Shaun Gladwell, JD Reformer, Tom Polo, Rhoda Tjitayi, Stanislava Pinchuk, and collaborators James Tylor and Rebecca Selleck.

[54] Since 2015, AGSA has hosted and supported events connected with Tarnanthi (pronounced tar-nan-dee), the Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art.

As of 2021[update] the gallery had acquired over 100 artworks thanks to their generosity, including paintings by Vanessa Bell, Clarice Beckett, Angelica Kauffmann and Camille Pissarro.

[61][63] Julie Fragar's 2016 painting Goose Chase: All of Us Together Here and Nowhere, which explores the story of Antonio de Fraga, her first paternal ancestor to emigrate to Australia in the 19th century, won the People's Choice Award.

[65][66] Vincent Namatjira won the main prize with his work Close Contact, 2018, a double-sided full-body representation of a man, in acrylic paint on plywood.

Inaugurated in 2019, the fellowship is intended for mid-career artists, to support opportunities to expand their research and further explore their creative potential.