In Newcastle, we’re lucky to have beautiful and well-loved beaches, but it’s the network of suburban creeks that is capturing my imagination.
They’re not glamorous or pristine, but they are accessible, quiet pockets of wild nature. I’m also interested in how natural landscapes can mirror our inner landscapes.
A shaft of late afternoon light cutting across the water in the otherwise darkening bush, speaks to me of the human desire to see and be seen, especially within the context of a relationship that feels safe and cosy.
Sia Cox (b. 1985, Sydney) is a Newcastle-based multi-disciplinary artist working across painting, soft sculpture and puppetry. Her practice meets life with presence, exploring relationships between community, place and self, conceptually and often materially through the use of reclaimed textiles. Currently, her focus is on wet-on-wet oil landscape painting, evoking an intimate, embodied connection to nature, where external landscapes reflect internal, psychological ones.
Cox’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and collaborative performances across Australia, most recently in COLLECT 2025 at The Lock-Up. She has been a finalist in the Newcastle Club Foundation Art Prize, the Togart Art Award, the Advocate Art Award, and the John Olsen Drawing Prize. Her public art and puppetry work includes a sculptural commission for the National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame, puppet production for Rebel Films and Curious Legends. Her puppets for the performance and film Animating Principals are currently exhibited at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne.
Sia holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National Art School and a Diploma of Counselling. She is the Education Programs Coordinator at The Lock-Up and a Guest Teaching Artist with the NSW Department of Education. She spent eight years working in Aboriginal-owned art centres in Central Australia and has lectured in Visual Arts, delivering VET courses in remote Aboriginal communities.