Adelaide · New York
Susanna
Cooney
Bas-relief sculpture, painting and stop-motion animation.
Handmade worlds built from polymer clay, plaster and paint—moving between intimate detail and immersive scale.
Selected work
Objects, images and moving worlds
2013
Sticks and Stones and Everything Nice
Polymer clay, enamel paint, and plaster of Paris
152 × 102 cm
Sold
A large-scale bas-relief in which opposing fields of colour hold dense, unfolding worlds of fantasy, labour, conflict and desire.
2011
Construction of an Icon
Polymer clay, spray paint, and plaster of Paris
102 × 102 cm
Sold
An American symbol assembled from consumer objects, toys and familiar emblems, suggesting that cultural identity is constructed piece by piece.
2012
Fantasam
Polymer clay and enamel paint on Gatorboard
99 × 99 × 8 cm
Sold
A spiralling field of handmade objects and cultural fragments, built in deep relief around a quiet central void.
2026
Icons, Rebels and Revolutionaries, 2026
New works · 2026
A continuing series of brightly coloured bas-relief portraits celebrating figures whose lives, ideas and images have shaped culture.
Malcolm X
RBG
Tupac
Bowie
Bernie
Mae Jemison
Frida
2026
South Australian Icons, 2026
New works · 2026
A continuing series drawing on familiar South Australian imagery, local cultural touchstones, architecture, flora and fauna.
Frog Cakes
West End
St Peter's Cathedral
South Australia's Wild Heroes
Frog Cake
2026
Personal Icons, 2026
New works · 2026
Works that explore personal memory, identity, family and the symbols that become meaningful through lived experience.
Bloom or Bust
Where the Heart Is
2009
Brooklyn
Polymer clay and spray paint
51 × 122 cm
Sold
A panoramic cityscape that turns the architecture and street life of Brooklyn into a vivid, tactile frieze.
2010
Baby Faces
Plaster of Paris, polymer clay, and spray paint
91 × 91 cm
Sold
Repetition, difference and intimate figurative detail form a grid that is at once playful and psychologically charged.
2010
Cameras
Plaster of Paris, polymer clay, and spray paint
91 × 91 cm
Sold
A repeated field of cameras explores looking, being seen and the tension between observation and performance.
2012
Innermost Thoughts I & II
Polymer clay and enamel paint on Gatorboard
Each 51 × 66 × 4 cm
Sold
Sparse pink fields turn thought bubbles into sculptural metaphors, pairing humour with longing, appetite and fantasy.
2013
Exquisite Corpse
Polymer clay
81 × 51 cm
Sold
A sculptural figure is assembled across the pages of an oversized book, merging portraiture, costume, narrative and object.
2014
Through the Rubix Glass
Polymer clay, enamel paint, and stop-motion animation
Animation cells: 17.8 × 17.8 cm and 30.5 × 50.8 cm
Works sold
Handmade reliefs become performers in a stop-motion world, extending the sculptural language of the physical works through movement and time.
Biography
About the artist
Susanna Cooney is an Adelaide-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans bas-relief sculpture, painting, and stop-motion animation. Working primarily with polymer clay, plaster, and paint, she creates tactile works that blur the boundaries between two- and three-dimensional forms, often pairing sculptural works with animated pieces created from the same handmade materials.
Born and raised in Adelaide, Cooney moved to New York at eighteen, where she developed her artistic practice before stepping away from exhibiting to raise her family. After returning to Adelaide in 2025, she resumed her practice with a renewed perspective, continuing to explore symbolism, metaphor, and the relationship between materiality, movement, and meaning.
Her work frequently engages with themes of social justice, using layered imagery and open-ended narratives that invite viewers to construct their own interpretations. Rather than offering fixed conclusions, Cooney creates works that encourage reflection, revealing as much about the viewer's own experiences and values as they do about the artwork itself.
Scale is central to Cooney's practice. Many works are physically substantial—often three to five feet across—so that their handmade details operate both as intimate objects and as immersive visual environments. From a distance, the works read as bold compositions; at close range, their densely modelled surfaces reveal miniature figures, objects and unfolding narratives.
She is currently developing new bodies of work for exhibition.
Artist statement
Where object becomes image
My practice explores the space between sculpture, painting, and moving image. I create bas-relief works using polymer clay, plaster, and paint, transforming everyday materials into tactile surfaces that blur the boundary between two and three dimensions.
Alongside these physical works, I create stop-motion animations using the same handmade materials and forms. The sculptures become performers, shifting, evolving, and taking on new lives through movement. Together, the static and animated works invite viewers to consider time, transformation, and the relationship between object and image.
Scale is an important part of how the work is experienced. Many pieces are large enough to confront the body directly, extending several feet across the wall and holding hundreds of individually formed elements. Their size allows them to function simultaneously as broad visual fields and as accumulations of intimate details. Viewers can first encounter the work as a whole, then move closer to discover smaller narratives, textures and symbols embedded within it.
Representation and metaphor are central to my practice. Rather than presenting fixed narratives, I use symbolic imagery and layered visual language to create works that resist singular interpretation. I am interested in the space where meaning is formed between the artwork and the viewer, believing that the conclusions people draw often reveal as much about their own experiences, assumptions, and values as they do about the work itself.
Many of my works engage with themes of social justice, inviting reflection on the structures, inequalities, and shared human experiences that shape contemporary life. Rather than prescribing answers, I seek to create space for questioning, dialogue, and multiple perspectives.
After developing my artistic practice in New York, I stepped away from exhibiting to focus on raising my family. Returning to my work has become an act of rediscovery. My practice is informed by both that interruption and the renewed perspective it has brought, embracing patience, play, and careful craftsmanship.
Through texture, shadow, movement, symbolism and scale, I aim to create works that reward close looking and invite sustained engagement—encouraging viewers to question where sculpture ends, painting begins, animation bridges the two, and ultimately, where the artwork ends and their own interpretation begins.
Selected CV
Exhibitions and publications
Current
2026-present Studio Artist, The Mill, Adelaide, South Australia
2026 Nominated, Fuller Award for Create Feeling, LIMITLESS 2026, The Mill, Adelaide
Solo Exhibition
2014 The Active Space, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY
Group Exhibitions
2026 LIMITLESS 2026, The Mill, Adelaide, South Australia
2013 The Active Space, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY
2012 In Rivers, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2011 Paul Barr Chelsea, Chelsea, New York, NY
2010 TownHouse Gallery, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY
2009 Fuego 718, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Art Fairs
2026 Aqua Art Miami, Miami Art Week, Miami, FL
2014 Art Expo, Chelsea, New York, NY
2011 Red Dot Art Fair, Armory Arts Week, Chelsea, New York, NY
Residency & Bibliography
2011 Aux Folies, Brooklyn, NY
2011 Featured Artists Volume III
2010 Burner
2010 “The TownHouse Art Gallery is Proud to Present the Works of Fine Artists,” New York's Best Models
Contact
Exhibitions, studio visits and enquiries
Adelaide, South Australia