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Name: Susie Cornish
Job Title: Art Consultant
What year did you join the Artbank team: 2004(-2007) and 2022
Describe your role and what you enjoy about working for Artbank:
I started at Artbank when the first Melbourne Showroom was established in leafy suburban High Street Armadale in 2004. Several interstate moves, employment in other areas of the art world and many years later, I am delighted to be back. Now situated in the edgy inner-city suburb of Collingwood, I work within a small Client Services team focused on leasing works from the Artbank collection.
What makes Artbank so unique and why I chose to return to the role is the vibrancy within the team, working together to support and promote Australian art through the leasing program which in turn funds the acquisition of new works from Australian artists.
The highlight of my job is meeting people who later become Artbank clients, matching personalities and spaces with works from the collection. On any given day I could be discussing art placement in share homes, private estates, small and big business, corporate and government departments; as well as working with architects, designers, stylists - the variety of people I meet is endless. Being one of the public faces of such a diverse collection of Australian contemporary art and sharing a workspace with so many artworks is a privilege, and it is rewarding connecting people with art they might never have otherwise encountered or considered.
Select an Artwork to represent you: Cybele Cox, White Shepherd, 2022, speckled stoneware, underglaze, glaze.
Short explanation of your artwork selection:
Cybele Cox is a multidisciplinary artist who explores representations of women, working primarily with hand built ceramic figures. This work is one of a series in the Artbank collection and is a play on the traditional masculine form of a toby jug.
I find it hard to walk past White Shepherd without stopping to admire her captivating attitude, demanding attention in spite of the small scale, and the pastel iridescent glaze that Cybele Cox has so expertly applied. Her slender arms on ballooning hips, she knows who she is as she jauntily reveals herself to you with confidence, as if provocatively asking her viewer - I know who I am, do you know who you are? White Shepherd makes herself too irresistible to ignore.
