About

Hayley Millar Baker (b. 1990) is a distinguished lens-based artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Her identity is deeply rooted in her Aboriginality, belonging to the Gunditjmara, Djabwurrung, and Nira-Bulok Taungurung peoples through her maternal lineage, with Anglo-Indian and luso-Brasileiro ancestry on her paternal side. This unique blend of cultural influences shapes her worldview and artistic vision, infusing her work with a rich sense of history, identity, and spirituality. Her diverse cultural heritage is central to her sense of self, driving her creative exploration and offering a tapestry of perspectives that deeply inform and enhance the themes in her art.

Millar Baker’s work is renowned for its complex synthesis of cultural specificity and universal human themes, intricately visualising multifaceted Indigenous feminine narratives. Through photography, collage, film, and video, her practice centres on storytelling—creating evocative visual journeys that reflect on being, identity, spirituality, and the human psyche, grounded in her personal experiences and heritage. By focusing on the nuanced psychological landscapes of Indigenous women, she portrays their profound emotional and mental depth while exploring perspectives that honour their indomitable spirit and innate spirituality. Themes of transformation, survival, and the restoration of balance engage audiences emotionally and intellectually. By positioning Indigenous women as central figures in these processes, Millar Baker highlights their power and agency in restoring ecological, spiritual, and cultural equilibrium while also emphasising the everyday strength and influence of feminine Indigenous figures in maintaining these balances.

Through her conceptual and abstract artistic vision, Millar Baker’s process is defined by a deliberate obfuscation of the image—alternately concealing and revealing elements to invite deeper contemplation. Her work resonates with emotional intensity, inviting audiences on evocative, non-linear journeys of discovery and interpretation that unfold and evolve over time.

“Over the past decade, Hayley has developed an idiosyncratic technique that welcomes obfuscation across her lens-based practice. Her process is one of alternating acts of excision and exposure. To see the whole ‘image’, we must consider what is beyond the frame. It is what exists beyond, this interplay of light and dark or what is seen and unseen, which holds power over the viewer. By deliberately obscuring our vision, Millar Baker introduces us to an interrogation of perception and its mutability.  Therefore, the shadows of her work are as important as what is presented in the light as perceptible, literal imagery. This interplay reminds us that history is piecemeal, and the view of the present, which we see in her scenes, is intentionally veiled.”

- Erin Vink, Curator of First Nations Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Hayley's work has been prominently featured in many major group and solo exhibitions, both locally and globally. These include esteemed institutions such as the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), MCA Australia (Sydney), Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Australian War Memorial (Canberra), Nasher Museum of Art Duke University (North Carolina, USA), Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide), Melbourne Museum (Melbourne), Fremantle Arts Centre (Fremantle), Heide Museum of Modern Art (Melbourne), Chau Chak Wing Museum (Sydney), Al Hamriyah Studios (Sharjah, UAE), Artspace Sydney (Sydney), UQ Art Museum (Brisbane), Gertrude Contemporary (Melbourne), SAMSTAG Museum (Adelaide), MUMA (Melbourne), Salamanca Arts Centre (Hobart), Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery (Broken Hill), Flinders Street Ballroom (Melbourne), Shepparton Art Museum (Shepparton), Ballarat Art Gallery (Ballarat), FUMA Gallery (Adelaide), ACE Open (Adelaide), The Substation (Melbourne), MAMA (Albury), and UNSW Gallery (Sydney). Hayley has also received significant commissions from prestigious institutions such as the National Gallery of Australia, Rising Festival, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), PHOTO2021: International Festival of Photography, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia), and the International Ballarat Foto Biennale.

Hayley has received numerous respected awards and accolades, including the National Photography Prize’s John and Margaret Baker Memorial Fellowship, the Darebin Art Prize, and the Churchie National Emerging Art Prize’s Special Commendation. She has also been a finalist in prestigious national awards such as the Art Gallery of South Australia’s Ramsay Art Prize, UNSW’s John Fries Award, the Bowness Photography Prize, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, as well as international prizes, including Venice’s Arte Laguna Prize, the Sovereign Asian Art Prize in Hong Kong, and the Vantage Point Sharjah in the UAE. Her notable residencies include the DESA Artist-in-Residence, Ubud, Bali; the Gertrude Contemporary studio residency; artist-in-residence, Monash University in Prato, Italy; Photography Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria; and artist-in-residence at The Substation.

Hayley Millar Baker is represented by Vivien Anderson Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, and Cassandra Bird in Sydney, Australia.