Cybele Cox’s (b. 1971, Australia) practice explores representations of women in the Western art canon, through motifs drawn from ancient feminine symbols and occult mysticism. Using hand built ceramic totems and figures, painting, drawing and more recently costume, Cox hybridises the human and animal world, fusing symbols from the mythic world with fantasies of a future utopian new world exclusively run by women leaders and Indigenous groups. In doing so, she reconstructs a new belief system from remnants of old ones, discarding the broken, hegemonic narratives and elevating those which were previously underestimated or hidden. For Cox, her works function as a means of entry into imagining a new version of events. They invite viewers to unstick and unstack themselves, and rebuild piece by piece, toward a call for a re-flowering of the spiritual, and ultimately, a new feminist order.
Cox holds a Master of Fine Art (2018) from The Sydney College of Art, and a Bachelor of Fine Art (1994) from The University of New South Wales Art & Design. Her work has been part of curated exhibitions across Australia including: The Belly and the Members, Ames Yavuz, Sydney (2024); From The Other Side, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2023-2024); Once More With Feeling, Ngununggula, NSW, Australia (2023); The Australian Ceramics Triennale, Alice Springs, Australia (2022); The Stand Ups, curated by Elyse Goldfinch, Bus Projects, Melbourne (2022); Nothing Human is Alien to Me, curated by Elyse Goldfinch, Artspace, Sydney (2019); Ideas Platform, Artspace, Sydney; Romance Died Romantically, curated by Amy Marjoram, Strange Neighbour, Melbourne (2015). Solo exhibitions include Pot Stacks, Ames Yavuz, Sydney (2022); Ornamental Hallucination II, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney (2022) and Ornamental Hallucination I, First Draft, Sydney (2017). Cox’s work has been presented at Art Fairs with Ames Yavuz including Installation Contemporary curated by Talia Smith at Sydney Contemporary in 2024, as well Melbourne Art Fair in 2024. She completed a residency at The Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, Australia in 2017 and was exhibited in Rundgang and Aa Collections in Vienna and in 2018 she was the recipient of the One Year Studio Artist Program at Artspace, Sydney. Cox was part of the Hidden exhibition at Rookwood Cemetery in 2019 and 2022 and won the Rookwood Sculptures award for her work The Red Shoes Vanitas in 2022.