Millar received a BFA in 1980 and an MFA from Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts in 1983. As recipient of a Scholarship from the Italian Government in 1990, she spent a year in Turin, Italy, where she studied Italian arts of the 1960s and 1970s.
Paintings
Millar is known for her abstract acrylic and oil paintings. While her works may recall Abstract Expressionist paintings, Millar does not consider her paintings as being 'gestural'. In an interview with Ocula in 2016, she said that,
The word that always sets my teeth on edge is ‘gesture.’ Gesture seems like something that comes gushing out from deep inside you. That is not really what I am interested in. My work is much more about drawing; it is about looking and seeing, less about ‘expressing’. I’m using gesture only in the sense that a gesture can communicate something.
2006 Inaugural winner of the McCahon House Residency, New Zealand
Exhibitions
Millar has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in both New Zealand and Europe and found critical acclaim in the international press. Selected Solo Exhibitions
2005 I Will, Should, Can, Must, May, Would Like to Express, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
Her painterly style was described as "energetic and overwhelming", and Andrea Hilgenstock calls her paintings "spectacular". Further references can be found in recent publications on New Zealand art. Her works can be found in the collections of the, Dunedin Public Art Gallery the Auckland Art Gallery, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Christchurch Art Gallery, and numerous private collections throughout Europe. She represented New Zealand at the 53rd Venice Biennial in 2009. This project is recreated in miniature in the 2014 pop-up book Swell, created in collaboration with paper engineer Phillip Fickling and writer Trish Gribben – this book in turn inspired full-scale pop-up style works for her solo exhibitionThe Model World and large sculptures for SCAPE and the Auckland Art Gallery. In 2011 she was again part of the Venice Biennale in the collateral event Personal Structures in Palazzo Bembo.
Current
Millar is represented by Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland, Gallery Mark Müller in Zurich, Hamish Morrison Gallery in Berlin, and Sullivan Strumpf, Sydney.
