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. 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 ourselves, and then rebuild piece by piece, in a call for a re-flowering of the spiritual, and ultimately, a new feminist order.
Cox holds a MFA from the Sydney College of Art (Australia), and a BFA from University of New South Wales Art & Design (Australia). Her work has been part of curated exhibitions across Australia including: Nothing Human is Alien to Me, curated by Elyse Goldfinch, Ideas Platform, Artspace Sydney; Romance Died Romantically, curated by Amy Marjoram at Strange Neighbour, Melbourne; and the Australian Ceramics Triennale. In 2017, Cox presented Ornamental Hallucination 1, a significant solo exhibition at Firstdraft, Sydney (Australia). After completing a residency at The Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (Austria) in 2017, Cox exhibited in Vienna and was a recipient of the 2018 One Year Studio Artist Program at Artspace, Sydney. She will participate in the forthcoming group exhibition, The Stand Ups, curated by Elyse Goldfinch at Bus Projects, Melbourne (March 2022) and the 2022 edition of the Australian Ceramics Triennale (July 2022).