Joshua Cocking
“The principal motivation behind my work and practice is to confront narratives surrounding outback mythology, while creating a critical discourse on the influence outsiders have in remote communities. My work is an investigation into Australian post‑colonial myth and the over‑romanticisation of remote Australia.”
Joshua Cocking is a Western Australian–based painter originally from Melbourne who has built a distinguished artistic practice grounded in his extended experience living and working in remote Indigenous communities across the Kimberley for over a decade. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Monash University and later first‑class Honours at Curtin University in 2021, his imagery—anchored in realist technique—often features surreal, orb‑like forms floating within vast landscapes. These forms, symbolic stand‑ins for outsider presence, register themes of disconnection, displacement, and the legacies of colonial myth in remote Western Australia.
Cocking has exhibited widely and received multiple accolades, including the Cossack Art Prize and commendations in the Perth Royal Art Prize and Black Swan Portrait Prize.
Works by the artist
