Werribee-born artist brings decade of works home

Hayley Millar Baker’s first hometown exhibition opened on 11 April at Wyndham Art Gallery. She was born at Werribee Mercy Hospital in 1990. It had taken 36 years for her work to come back to the streets where she grew up.

The free show, Selected Works, runs until 14 June and brings together six series of photographs, moving images, video, and film. Spanning a decade of practice, the works sit alongside a new commission that maps the local landscape from Werribee to the You Yangs, Werribee Gorge, and west to Lorne.

“There are works where I appear multiple times, but there’s works with my Mum, my Nan, and my Aunties,” Baker told Art Guide Australia. “I’ve tried to give as many voices as possible, so it comes from a different perspective, a different narration.”

The exhibition includes an interactive archive room with early works, essays, and reading materials. It offers a rare glimpse into the artist’s development, from childhood influences to major institutional shows at NGV, AGNSW, and the National Gallery of Australia. Baker was shortlisted for the Australian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale.

Art Guide Australia critic Jasmeet Kaur Sahi described the homecoming as commanding. She singled out the poetic self-portraits in the series In Life, In Death, the spellbinding videos like The Umbra and Entr’acte, and the new commission’s bold red wash.

That commission, She was like the lizard that fell into the water and became a crocodile, soaks local landmarks in a crimson hue. The colour is deliberate: a layering of family blood, love, destruction, and anger directly into the gumtrees and gorges of Baker’s childhood. It is a jigsaw of trauma and regeneration assembled through collage.

Baker works largely in black and white. “There’s no truth in photography,” she said. “For the stories that I wanted to tell, there was no truth, there was no documentation within that field.” Removing colour, she told Art Guide Australia, forces the eye to hunt for shadows, lines, and patterns instead of being distracted by hierarchy.

Wyndham City Council’s First Nations Arts Officer Steven Rhall will host an artist talk during the exhibition. Public programs also include a digital collage workshop and an Analog Art Club session. Council advises booking early for the talk as numbers are capped.

The gallery is at 177 Watton Street, Werribee, and is open Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm, weekends 10am to 3pm. Entry is free. The Werribee train line runs from the city to Werribee Station, a 10-minute walk away. On-site parking and street parking are available, but check weekend restrictions.

After the exhibition, the Wyndham Cultural Centre’s theatre and cafes sit next door. A short walk leads to Werribee’s main strip of restaurants, or you can drive five minutes to Werribee Park and the Open Range Zoo for a full day out.

The exhibition closes on 14 June 2026. With many Melburnians yet to see the new red collages, the final weeks will be the last chance to watch Baker’s work before it heads back to the national circuit – and the only chance to see her hometown, soaked in the colour of memory, on its own walls.