Kylian Martin is a re-emerging artist with lifelong roots in the Australian landscape. Raised on a farm in Yass, NSW, in the 1970s and 80s, she is now based in the Northern Rivers, where her art making is deeply connected to place, landscape and the body.

Working often plein air, Kylian uses charcoal, ink, oil sticks, acrylic, handmade botanical brushes and earth pigments made from soil, bone, wood and rainwater, thoughtfully collected from the land.

Her mark making is instinctive and responsive, while also delicate, considered and almost anatomical. Her long career as a designer, creative arts therapist and somatic educator has shaped her interest in the relationship between nature, human experience and the creative act.

Now custodian of a hinterland farm, where she is regenerating the land and planting a Big Scrub rainforest, Kylian’s practice bridges landscape, gestural abstraction and botanical forms.

Selected shows and achievements

• Micro 10 x 10, Station Street Co-op, Bangalow, NSW – Encouragement Award, 2025–2026

• Micro 40 x 40, Gallery 3, Byron Bay, NSW, 2025–2026

• Inaugural Plateau Art Prize finalist, Black Fig Gallery, Alstonville, NSW, 2025–2026

• Resident exhibitor, Nexus Modern Art, Melbourne, VIC

• Re-enchantment in the Studio, solo Masters exhibition, Redhouse, VIC

• A Visual Voice, group exhibition, ArtSpace71, Kingston, ACT

I have lifelong roots in Yass, where I was born and grew up.

This land shaped me. It’s in my bones.

Part memoir, tribute, and healing, this collection began with a reconnaissance this year where I immersed myself in this landscape in a new way, after fleeing 40 years ago.

Steeped in curiosity, deep listening and play, my body leads. Every mark is unplanned. I work instinctively, improvisationally. The purpose is in the creative encounter itself, rather than the end product. Showing up fully, with my whole heart at the helm, is what matters. And responding to whatever shows up on a sensory level, I let the land speak to and through me. The painting paints me. And as a result, the work is unflinchingly honest.

A collector since I was a girl, I use bones, charcoal, grass, rainwater and soil in the work. It's a relational, co-creative way of making art. Every piece is imbued with by the land, capturing a felt sense, and literal essence, of place.

Although my life in Yass was bittersweet, this land held me and bore witness through all of it. And now it has welcomed me back. This Land is Kin is a sensory exploration and honouring of this sublime and complex connection. Of my body as part of - and truly belonging to - this land.

Kylian Martin, 2026

This Land is Kin runs from 3 – 17 October at Tyger Gallery.

The opening event is 3pm, Saturday 3 October. All are welcome.

The gallery is open 10am – 2pm Saturday–Sunday–Monday.