Carmen Ky

“My practice embodies the interface of Eastern philosophy and Western art. Currently I am researching Tibetan Buddhist ideas of the Five Elements as a portal into concepts of landscape … including Australian indigenous culture. I have created work from immersion in landscapes as diverse as Lake Mungo, Mystery Bay, the Central Western Desert, the Glasshouse Mountains and Kakadu in Australia, the Himalayas in India and Nepal and Guizhou province in South-west China.”

Carmen Ky’s tertiary education began in Sydney at the National Art School, majoring in painting in 1966. She also studied and practiced traditional Chinese Acupuncture during the 1970’s, maintaining a professional practice for 10 years alongside her art practice. In 1983 she studied with Earle Backen at COFA UNSW and completed a Graduate Diploma majoring in printmaking. Then in 1988 attended Canberra School of Art and studied printmaking with Jorg Schmeisser. In 2007 she studied traditional Indian drawing in Sikkim, India with Kulavadhuta Satpurananda and in 2020 received a Master of Philosophy degree from CASS SOAD ANU. For 17 years she taught part-time through TAFE, including EORA Institute for Aboriginal Studies and at the National Art School while continuing her painting practice and photographic projects on books and documentary films.

Carmen Ky has exhibited widely across Australia and has exhibited in China and Malaysia. She is represented in corporate collections in Australia and Singapore and in collections of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Broken Hill City Art Gallery, University of Western Sydney, College of Fine Arts UNSW, National Gallery Canberra, Art Gallery of NSW, Campbelltown City Council, Blacktown City Council, Hawkesbury City Council.