Teresa Baker | 'Marlilu, 2025' | 91x122cm

Code: PPFATB1190

Artist: Teresa Baker

Title: Marlilu

Area: Alice Springs

Community: Pitjantjatjara

Size: 91x122cm

Year: 2025

Many of Teresa Baker's paintings depict Marlilu, the women's creation figure central to Pitjantjatjara story, and this canvas takes its title directly from her. The figure moves through country as a shifting, generative presence, and Baker's compositions trace her passage across the land in long curving lines and clustered circles. This way of working was passed to her by her grandfather Jimmy Baker at Tjungu Palya, and it carries forward the knowledge of Kanpi and the surrounding homelands where she grew up.

DOB: 1977 Born: Alice Springs, NT LANGUAGE GROUP: Pitjantjatjara COMMUNITY: Kanpi, SA Teresa Baker was born in Alice Springs in 1977 and grew up in Kanpi, South Australia, where she lived with her grandparents, the celebrated artist Jimmy Baker and his wife. At the time she was first in Kanpi, the community was in its early stages of development and had no houses. Later she moved to Fregon to live with her mother, artist Kay Baker. She completed her schooling in Fregon and in Adelaide. After leaving school, Teresa began working at a Kanpi school teaching Pitjantjatjara language. Teresa started painting in 2005 at Tjungu Palya art centre, where she was taught by her grandfather, Jimmy. Teresa is a talented and intuitive artist, whose paintings possess a great depth of expression. Many of her works depict the woman's creation figure, Marlilu. Teresa is married with three children and currently spends her time between Alice Springs, Kanpi and her homelands at Watarru.