Diana Baker Smith is an artist and Senior Lecturer in Fine Arts at the School of Art & Design, UNSW. Her research is grounded in feminist methodologies and collaborative processes, activating embodied and affective responses to historical materials. Working at the intersection of performance and moving image, she engages with sites, archives, and institutional histories to reimagine what is remembered, forgotten or deliberately obscured. She is currently developing a new body of work that draws on her familial archive to trace the entangled colonial histories of Ireland and Australia, using water as both subject and method.

Recent solo exhibitions and commissions include, This Place Where They Dwell (Penrith Regional Gallery, 2024), Falling Towards Another (Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2024), A Score for Reconstruction (Newcastle Art Gallery, 2024), She Speaks in Sculpture (UTS Art Gallery, 2022), The Lost Hour (Contemporary Art Tasmania, 2022) and Tasks yet to be composed for the occasion (Ideas Platform, Artspace, 2021). Her solo and collaborative works have been presented nationally at institutions including the Art Gallery of NSW, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, La Trobe Art Institute, and the Biennale of Sydney. Internationally her work has been presented at institutions including Te Uru, Auckland, The Physics Room, Christchurch, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, and Hayward Gallery, London.

In 2025 Diana was awarded the Major Acquisitive Gosford Art Prize, and in 2024 was the recipient of the Judy Wheeler Commission at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. She has undertaken international residencies in Ireland, Korea and China, and was awarded the Creative Australia London Studio Residency at Acme Studios in 2018. Diana is also a founding member of the art collective Barbara Cleveland. Their collaborative works are held in institutional collections including Artbank, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art and Monash University Museum of Art. Diana is currently undertaking the inaugural Vaucluse House Creative and Cultural Residency through Museums of History NSW.

Diana Baker Smith Website

Selected Creative Works

1. D. Baker Smith, Falling Towards Another (A Score for the Void), 2024, Installation,  performance and single channel 4K video 5:05 minutes. Commissioned by Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts for the 2024 Judy Wheeler Commission.
2. D. Baker Smith, This Place Where They Dwell, 2024, 4 channel 4K video, 5:15 minutes. Commissioned for Penrith Regional Art Gallery, Home of the Lewers Bequest. Subsequently presented at Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Art Centre, Sydney, 2024.
3. D. Baker Smith, A Score for Reconstruction, 2024. Digital print on vinyl, 2 x 20m panels. Commissioned by Newcastle Art Gallery for Laman Street Hoarding Commission, Newcastle.
4. D. Baker Smith, K. Blackmore, 2022, Brief Illuminations Between Interruptions, single channel 4K video, 13.12 minutes. Commissioned for Video Commission by Ngunungulla Regional Art Gallery, Bowral. Subsequently presented at: Gosford Art Prize, Gosford Art Gallery, 2022.
5. D. Baker Smith, 2022, She Speaks in Sculpture, two channel 4K video, 9.35 minutes. Commissioned for She Speaks in Sculpture at UTS Art Gallery, Sydney, 2022. Subsequently presented at Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Sydney, 2022; Circles of Dialogue, La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo, 2023; Darebin Art Prize, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Victoria, 2024.
6. D. Baker Smith, 2021, The Lost Hour, single channel HD video, 15:50 minutes. First presented at Tasks yet to be composed for the occasion, Artspace Sydney. Subsequently presented at the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Sydney, 2021; Phillipa Cullen: Know my Name, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Contemporary Art Tasmania, Hobart; The Condensery, Somerset Regional Art Gallery, Toogoolawah, 2022.
7. D. Baker Smith, 2021, The One Hour Concert, single channel 4K video, 15:50 minutes. First presented at Tasks yet to be composed for the occasion, Artspace Sydney. Subsequently presented at Phillipa Cullen: Know my Name, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Contemporary Art Tasmania, Hobart, 2022.
8. D. Baker Smith, V. Tello, 2020, Opening Night (The Order of Arrangements) single channel HD video, 17:15 minutes. Commissioned for Know my Name Conference, National Gallery of Australia, 2020. Subsequently presented at: All About Women, the Sydney Opera House, 2021; quietly, carefully, casually, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney, 2022; Photosynthesiers: Women and the Lens, Te Uru Contemporary Gallery, Auckland, 2025
9. D. Baker Smith, K. Blackmore, F. Barrett, K. Doley, 2019, This is a Stained Glass Window, single channel HD video, 13.28 minutes. First presented at Sullivan+Strumpf Gallery, Sydney, 2019. Subsequently presented at Goulburn Regional Gallery, 2020; Penrith Regional Gallery, 2021; Melbourne International Film Festival, 2022; Gosford Art Gallery, NSW, 2022; Pine River Gallery, QLD, 2023; The Condensery | Somerset Regional Art Gallery, 2023; Goldfields Arts Centre, WA, 2023.