Debuting at Humble House Gallery for her first exhibition since the closure of Solander Gallery in 2016, Carmen Ky’s Five Elements will flow through Humble House from 29 April to 28 May.

The Australian artist will showcase her paintings infused with Buddhist concepts and environmental concern in the upstairs main gallery.

In Western culture, the primary focus is with the four elements – Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. Carmen introduces us to the fifth element, which always existed in Eastern culture – Space – the element which holds them all.

The ancient philosophy of the five elements has interested her since she left art school in the late 1960s. Carmen first received acupuncture treatment in the early 1970s, when the practice was expanding in Australia.

In looking into acupuncture, she discovered the five elements. “I became so enthralled that I went on to study and practice acupuncture for the next decade.”

While studying for her Master of Philosophy at ANU in 2019, Carmen found ways to integrate Tibetan Buddhism, which she had been spiritually exploring since the 1980s, into her artwork. She did this by focusing the five elements into her landscapes.

“Earth related to areas like Lake Mungo, where they found the earliest human remains on this continent. Water to the areas where I have always lived by the sea. Fire to the central deserts of Australia, while both Air and Space are much more abstract,” she says. “Air carries change and offers fluidity and flux, while Space contains all the other elements, like a continuous rolling grid of particles and waves,” she says.

“I’m hoping this will be another way for people to appreciate the elements and deepen respect for our natural environment.”