Sadhbha Cockburn

PhD Candidate

Arts, Design & Architecture

School of Art & Design

Supervisors: David Eastwood, Prudence Gibson, Bianca Hester

Sadhbha Cockburn is an artist and educator, living and working upon Gadigal country in Sydney, NSW. She holds a BFA in Painting and an MFA in Drawing from the National Art School, and has a background in biomedical sciences.

Cockburn’s current PhD research considers how poetic material methodologies can bring both artist and viewer into closer connection with their surroundings. Made predominantly from found and biodegradable materials, her works juxtapose fabricated industrial objects with domestic handicraft, highlighting themes of labour, habit and home.

Cockburn has participated in multiple group shows and prizes. She was a recent finalist in the Macquarie Emerging Art Prize (2025), the Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize (2025) and has been long-listed for the Hunter Writer’s Centre ‘Grieve’ Anthology (2025). Recent group exhibitions include shows at DrawSpace, Tamworth Regional Gallery, Schmick Contemporary. In 2023, she was awarded the Onslow Storrier Residency Prize at La Cité Internationale in Paris and the Foundations Residency Prize in Portland, NSW.

Research area
Research outputs

Reparative sculpture and mourning studies

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 Lloyd Rees Emerging Artist Award Exhibition, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney
2023 ‘The Turning’, Schmick Contemporary, Sydney
2023 ‘Materiality’ – Drawspace, Newtown, Sydney
2023 Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize – MAGM, Manly
2023 Motel Art Fair, South East Centre for Contemporary Art, Bermagui
2022 ‘anterograde//retrograde’ – airSPACE projects, Marrickville
2022 Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize – MAGM, Manly
2022 North Sydney Art Prize, Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability
2022 ‘Residue’ - aMBUSH Gallery, Waterloo
2021 Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize – MAGM, Manly
2021 Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award Exhibition, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney
2021 ‘Organic’ – Scratch Art Space, Marrickville
2021 ‘Margaret Olley Drawing Week Exhibition, 2021’ – Rayner Hoff Project Space, NAS
2020 Traces IV, Belconnen Art Centre, Canberra
2019 Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award Exhibition, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney
2019 Stolen property, NAS Library Stairwell Gallery, National Art School, Sydney
2017 Traces II, Belconnen Art Centre, Canberra

Awards, Grants and Residencies

2024 Visual Arts Residency, The Foundations, Portland, NSW
2023 The Onslow Storrier Residency Prize at La Cité Internationale des Arts à Paris
2023 Visual Arts Residency Shark Island, Kangaroo Valley, NSW
2023 Award for Academic Excellence in the Masters of Fine Art, National Art School
2022 Finalist in the Northern Beaches Environmental Art Prize, MAGM, Manly
2022 Finalist in the Matisse Eloquence Prize, Culture Plus-AGNSW collaboration
2022 East Sydney Doctors Scholarship, National Art School, Sydney
2021 Highly commended in the Northern Beaches Environmental Art Prize, MAGM, Manly
2021 Finalist in the Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney
2021 Margaret Olley Drawing Week Internship, National Art School
2020 Brandon Trakman Scholarship for Art History, National Art School, Sydney
2019 Finalist in the Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney

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Sadhbha Cockburn