By arts editor HELEN MUSA

“Don’t do what your parents tell you to do,” famed children’s author Andy Griffiths advised a group of youngsters gathered for the unveiling of a new 3-D portrait by Ronnie van Hout, titled Andy Andy, at the National Portrait Gallery on Friday.

He was only half joking. As Griffiths went on to explain some of the weirdness for which he has become famous, you would hardly expect anything less.

As for the newly commissioned portrait, it is as unconventional as they come, a three-dimensional sculptural installation showing two large Andys, with smaller Andys in the hand of one of them.

In a brain-bending feat of art, van Hout has suggested worlds within worlds as the standing Andy holds two more Andys, while a fourth large Andy gazes down at himself from a tree.

Children and adults alike were able to admire the new portrait within an immersive space titled Brainstorm: Inside the Mind of Andy Griffiths, an installation containing more than 130 books, toys and trinkets that have inspired the author. Many of them, Griffiths said, were picked up from junk shops, but are now handled with white gloves.

A separate section of the exhibition draws on Griffiths’ favourite records and visitors heard that both he and van Hout had once been front men in punk bands, another sign of their mutual love of the subversive and the uncanny.

According to National Portrait Gallery director Bree Pickering, Brainstorm allowed visitors inside the kaleidoscopic weirdness and wonder of a great author, while van Hout has in Andy Andy reversed the usual path of sculpture to create “true likeness in the deepest sense”.

When he took to the microphone, Griffiths downplayed his own talents, instead paying tribute to his long-time collaborator, the late illustrator Terry Denton, and to his wife and co-writer, Jill Griffiths.

On Saturday, September 26, the public can view the new portrait and immersive space during the gallery’s annual family day.

Brainstorm: Inside the Mind of Andy Griffiths will remain on display at the National Portrait Gallery until mid-2027.

News all day, every day at CityNews.com.au.