There's boxes all over the floor (Peter Land's Back to square one), there's a never ending basket of washing (Duane Hanson's Woman with a laundry basket) and the only place you can sneak off for a quiet whisky is the toilet, even if you're still in your pyjamas at drink o'clock (Ronnie van Hout's Sitting figure I).

But the question is, is Hyper Real suitable for children?

Bonython mother of four Annika de Hoog took her children Oscar, 7, Matilda, 5, Harvey, 3 and Ted, six months, to view Hyper Real on Wednesday and would definitely recommend it for families.

"We were aware beforehand of what was in the exhibition and we'll talk about it later if the kids bring anything up," she said.

"It's great to have places in Canberra like this to visit during the holidays."

The family planned to visit the newly installed NGA Play: Indieguerillas, the Sculpture Garden and the Turrell Skyspace once they had finished wandering through Hyper Real.

What was the verdict of the children? Oscar's favourite exhibit was Land's Back to square one; he thought the long man in the boxes was "cool".

Harvey liked Zharko Basheski's Ordinary man which greeted him at the entrance.

Baby Ted was probably wondering what all the fuss about Patricia Piccinini's Newborn was all about but it was Matilda who was most engaged by the exhibition.

She made use of the gallery's children's audio tour and was quick to set her sibling's right with the information she learned.

"I'm going to tell you Oscar, it was an old lady, not a seal," she said as the pair discussed Piccinini's The long awaited. Matilda was quite taken by this sculpture, her little hand coming to her mouth as she gasped upon first viewing.

Piccinini herself has remarked that children are more open to ideas of difference, according the NGA's Hyper Real catalogue, where imagination and reality are not separate but intertwined.

And that's probably the key to answering the question of whether Hyper Real is family friendly - allow your children the space to interact with the exhibit as they want to but be prepared to answer questions if they have them.

It was interesting to watch the approach of different family groups as we all wandered through Hyper Real. One mother shuffled her young daughter and son through the gallery featuring the nudes of Paul McCarthy's That girl. Other children were worried by the moving wheelchairs of Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's Old people's home. (Young Harvey was a little scared by this exhibit, telling us they looked like moving ghosts, but other children interacted gleefully with the motorised wheelchairs.)

An NGA spokeswoman said response from families had been overwhelmingly positive since the exhibition opened in October, with most people aware of what the exhibition contained.

"We feel that all art is accessible and should be explored by children," she said.

"While there is some nudity in this exhibition, there is a lot of nudity throughout art history and generally we find that kids aren't fazed by it."

She said part of the success of Hyper Real is that it was suitable for everyone.

"You don't need to know a lot about art or art history to appreciate the magnitude of the technical aspects of the sculptures," she said.

"It's exciting to watch adults do a double take on a security guard in the first gallery when he starts to move and they thought it was a part of the exhibition or to watch a child's reaction to Ron Mueck's Pregnant woman.

"All art is subjective so everyone's reactions are going to be different but generally the response has been very positive."

Hyper Real runs at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, until February 18, 2018. Tickets for adults are $26 with accompanied under 16s free. An audio tour designed specifically for children is also available.