Nick Mitzevich announced as new National Gallery of Australia Director

Following an international search Nick Mitzevich has been confirmed as the sixth Director of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra.

The appointment, approved by the Federal Government will see Mitzevich leave his current role as Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA).

Mitzevich will replace Gerard Vaughan, who signalled his retirement last year after having been appointed in 2014 to stabilise the NGA following the exit of previous Director Ron Radford. Radford was also a director at AGSA before he moved to Canberra.

Mitzevich will swap a gallery with $11 million in annual government funding for one three times that amount, and bring a reputation for effecting change to the NGA.

A former Director of the Newcastle Art Gallery and of the University of Queensland Art Museum in Brisbane, he took the Adelaide job after previous Director Christopher Menz quit, accusing the South Australian Government of failing to properly fund the gallery.

During his time at the AGSA he gained a reputation for effecting change, overseeing the acquisition of a trophy painting, Camille Pissarro's landscape Prairie a Eragny, bought with $4.5 million raised entirely from donations.

He was also responsible for the renovation of the 120-year-old sandstone building room by room, introduced an Indigenous art festival, Tarnanthi, and hosted large-scale blockbusters, including one of paintings by Turner and another of fashion icons.

Mitzevich (pictured) also improved South Australia's collecting of contemporary Australian and international art, and was the first Australian Director to implement a provenance project to investigate antiquities in its collection acquired without historical checks.

In 2014 Mitzevich curated the prestigious Adelaide Biennale, Dark Heart, and he is held in significant esteem by the Adelaide community after having pledged not to turn down a single invitation during his first year in the job.

He almost doubled annual visitor numbers from 480,000 in 2010 to 800,000 last year, and his plan to build a new museum, Adelaide Contemporary, was enthusiastically backed by former South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill.

Former Sydney Opera House Chief Executive Michael Lynch is chairing the design competition for Adelaide Contemporary, which closes next week, and will advise AGSA as it seeks a new Director.

Mitzevich, aged 48, will in July commence his five-year term atop the nation's best-funded art gallery, which is also home to the largest collection, some 150,000 artworks valued at $6 billion.

He will also inherit an institution that has undergone a recent restructure due to Federal Government funding cuts and that harbours long-established plans to increase the gallery size through an as-yet unfunded renovation.

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