Stephen Cox

Stephen Cox was born in Bristol in 1946. He studied at the Central School of Art and Design, London (1966-68).

Cox's work is based in other cultures. Rooted in classicism, his early sculptures related to architecture and archaic fragments, and were realised in stone from Italian quarries. The Mediterranean, as the cradle of civilisation of the Western world, provided the context for his work. In 1986, Cox represented Britain at the Sixth Indian Triennale in New Delhi. He went to Mahabalipuram, a centre for traditional Hindu carving, to make sculpture for the exhibition, and since that time has maintained a studio there. The carvings he made in granite from the ancient quarries of nearby Kanchipuram were to have a great bearing on his work over the next decade. In 1988, he was commissioned to carve sculpture for the new Cairo Opera House, Egypt, and was allowed to quarry Imperial porphyry at Mons Porphyrytes in the Eastern Desert, which had not been used since the end of Roman Empire. This in turn led to new developments in his imagery, such as references to the human torso. In varying his treatment of the rich red and green stones, Cox developed his sculpture towards a more abstract state. In 1993 he completed a commission for the parish church of St Paul, Harringay, using Italian and Egyptian stones. His most recent work in Egypt was centered on the Kephren quarries in the Western Desert of southern Egypt.

Recently, Cox has worked at the Carrara marble quarries in Italy, on sculptures for exhibitions in the Piazza del Duomo, Siena; the National Gallery, London; Val D'Osta, Italy; and an altar commission for the Chapel of St Anselm, Canterbury Cathedral from the Archbishop.