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As artists and designers, we respect and celebrate Country and work to create projects that are deeply connected to place through time.  We pay our respect to elders past, present and emerging and to traditional custodians and knowledge holders of the land on which we work and travel through. 

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Chris Fox

Studio Chris Fox
Founding Director
Artist + Designer

Chris Fox is an artist and academic with 30 years' experience in the built environment, navigating the complex constraints of the public domain. His practice-led research operates at the intersection of architecture, public art and infrastructure, integrating computational design, material systems and Country-centred collaboration.

 

In addition to his Studio practice, Chris is a Senior Lecturer in Art Processes and Architecture at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning. In 2026 he is undertaking the University's Special Studies Program in Darwin and Arnhem Land, working with Mimal Land Management and Charles Darwin University on Country-centred research.


He has been the recipient of awards including the AIA Urban Design Award (Rozelle Parklands, 2025), the Australian Steel Institute National Steel Excellence Award (Rozelle Interchange, 2024), Good Design Australia Gold Accolade (Interchange Pavilion, 2021) and the National Trust Heritage Award for the Most Outstanding Project of the Year (Interloop, 2018). Rozelle Interchange and Iron Cove Link were acquired into the Powerhouse Museum digital collection in 2025.

Biography

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Tina Salama, Dr

Studio Chris Fox
Director + Art Strategy

Tina Salama is a medical doctor

specialising in the field of psychiatry. She is also co-director of Studio Chris Fox, with a background training in Architecture and a Master’s in Fine Arts.

Tina is passionate about the impact of the built environment on human health. In particular, the ways  in which art and place making contribute to urban identity and cultivate connections between individuals, communities and environments; weaving narratives of our unique and collective past, present and futures.

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Sarah Anstee

Studio Chris Fox
Computational Designer + BID Coordinator

Sarah studied at the University of Sydney graduating with an architectural Honours and Masters degree maintaining a deep interest in art. They’ve been motivated towards interdisciplinary explorations of art and design through various mediums. Sarah‘s skills include multi-scalar spatial sensibilities, technical design, planning & documentation.

In thinking about environments, artistic and spatial potential, Sarah is highly motivated by artistic processes, innovative design and creating space for diverse interests.

Studio Chris Fox project engaging with Country, connecting art, landscape, and cultural narratives through place-based design
Design process at Studio Chris Fox, using computational methods to develop public art and architectural projects.
About The Studio

Studio Chris Fox was founded by artist and academic Chris Fox with the aim of transforming the built environment, bridging the disciplines of art, architecture and engineering. The studio operates as a vehicle for practice-led architectural research, developed in partnership with the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, Charles Darwin University and First Nations organisations including Mimal Land Management. Chris has over 30 years' experience in the built environment, navigating the complex constraints of the public domain to design and deliver civic-scale public works that are technically rigorous, culturally responsible and publicly legible.

 

The studio's research agenda combines computational design workflows, material and fabrication research, and Country-centred collaboration with First Nations partners. We transform places with sculptural form at civic scale, embedding meaningful stories of place, people and Country across time.

Corrugated Columns — Studio Time-Lapse
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Studio Chris Fox

Corrugated Columns — Studio Time-Lapse

Corrugated Columns is a temporary installation by Chris Fox, developed in 2012 during a residency at St Joseph’s College. The work was developed in a temporary studio environment and explores lightweight, low-cost materials through a process of accumulation, stacking and repetition. Using corrugated card columns and expanded polystyrene, the installation tests how everyday industrial materials can be reconfigured into sculptural architectural forms. The project sits within Chris Fox’s broader practice of working between sculpture, structure, fabrication and spatial intervention. Rather than treating material as neutral support, Corrugated Columns foregrounds the behaviour, texture and compressive logic of the materials themselves. Project: Corrugated Columns Artist: Chris Fox Year: 2012 Type: Exhibition artwork / temporary installation Location: St Joseph’s College Materials: Corrugated card columns, expanded polystyrene More: https://www.studiochrisfox.com/projects/corrugated-columns
Charlotte | Suzuki Sierra suspension artwork 1996
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Studio Chris Fox

Charlotte | Suzuki Sierra suspension artwork 1996

From the archive: Charlotte, 1996 — 30 years on. Charlotte is a temporary installation by Chris Fox, first presented in 1996 at the Sydney College of the Arts graduating show at Kirkbride, Sydney. The work suspends a Suzuki Sierra vertically — shifting the vehicle from horizontal to vertical, stripping it of its function and its advertised macho, and reconsidering it as an object of weight, memory, commodity and personal history. The car was a 21st-birthday gift — a domestic emblem of a particular kind of suburban Australian upbringing. Lifting and reorienting it displaced not just the weight of the vehicle but, in its way, the weight of family expectation. The work was as much a public exposure of background as it was a sculpture. This time-lapse documents the installation process, including the steel support structure, lifting sequence and final suspended form. Project: Charlotte Artist: Chris Fox Year: 1996 Location: Sydney College of the Arts, Kirkbride, Sydney (graduating show) Materials: Suzuki Sierra, 165mm CHS mild steel welded A-frame, 20mm mild steel plates, M20 bolts, chemical anchors, lifting chain. 500 × 350 × 350 cm. Assisted by Murray-More Steel, Hilti, ARB 4x4 Accessories, Kennards Hire, Miller Milston Ferris Consulting Engineers. More: https://www.studiochrisfox.com/projects/charlotte
The Mix — Cosmic Love Wonder Lust: The Imperial Slacks Project | ABC, 2015 | Vale James Valentine
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Studio Chris Fox

The Mix — Cosmic Love Wonder Lust: The Imperial Slacks Project | ABC, 2015 | Vale James Valentine

Originally broadcast on ABC’s The Mix, 15 August 2015. Presenter (Vale James Valentine 1961 - 2026) joins Imperial Slacks artists Chris Fox and Lea Donnan for a trip back to the Surry Hills warehouse where it all began — the occasion being Cosmic Love Wonder Lust: The Imperial Slacks Project, the 2015 reunion exhibition co-presented by Sydney College of the Arts and Campbelltown Arts Centre. “Oh, it was the best time. We just didn’t know it at the time.” Imperial Slacks (1999–2002) was a Surry Hills warehouse that doubled as home, studio and gallery for a generation of emerging Australian artists at the turn of the millennium. As one of us puts it in the segment: “When you look back, you kind of don’t realise how cool it was, or how exciting, or important — and actually what a fluid language we had. And maybe, informally, it was a school.” The 15 Slackers reunited for the exhibition: Shaun Gladwell, Angelica Mesiti, Emma Price, Sean Cordeiro & Claire Healy, Wade Marynowsky, Alex Davies, Techa Noble, Michael Schiavello, Chris Fox, Melody Willis, Lea Donnan, Simon Cooper, Laura Jordan and Monika Tichacek. Co-curated by Nicholas Tsoutas (SCA, University of Sydney) and Michael Dagostino (Director, Campbelltown Arts Centre). Vale James Valentine — broadcaster, musician, and one of the warmest interviewers Australian arts ever had. Thank you for the time, the curiosity and the questions. https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2015/08/17/the-slackers-reunite-for-cosmic-love-wonder-lust.html 0:00 — Welcome to the party 0:32 — The artists are back together 0:42 — Total control of the space 1:09 — Want to see what’s in there now? 1:27 — Post-industrial romance 1:48 — The best time — we just didn’t know it 2:24 — A formative period 2:49 — Slackers who went on — Gladwell, Healy, Mesiti, Fox 2:58 — Chris Fox: tribute to the 1998 work 4:05 — Work, Rest, Play, Escape — ‘Don’t you want to belong?’ 4:37 — Death by Stereo
Working with Anthea
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Studio Chris Fox

Working with Anthea

Working with Anthea on the rammed earth walls with @mimallandmanagement5492 Research project: Interweaving Country and Design — Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Design Practice. A practice-led collaboration between the University of Sydney ⁨ @ArchitectureDesignPlanning , Mimal Land Management Aboriginal Corporation ⁨ @mimallandmanagement5492 , Kaunitz Yeung Architecture ⁨ @kaunitzyeung , and Mardrulk Contracting, exploring how Indigenous land management and cultural knowledge can inform architectural practice and education.

First Nations Collaborators

  • Jacob Nash

  • Michael Mossman

  • Shay Tobin

  • Mimal Land Management Aboriginal Corporation

  • Gujaga Foundation

  • Gamay Rangers, La Perouse

Landscape

  • Yerrabingin (AKIN team — Barangaroo Harbour Park)

Strategy and Place 

  • City People

Research

  • The University of Sydney, School of Architecture, Design and Planning.

    • Studio Chris Fox is the practice-led research vehicle through which Chris Fox develops Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTROs) at civic scale within the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Chris is a recipient of the Rothwell Family Fellowship for Caring for Sea Country (2024–2027).

  • Charles Darwin University, Darwin

Delivery

  • Shop1

Engineering

  • Bollinger+Grohmann

Collaborators
 
The studio team thrives in meaningful collaborations and co-design, generating unique cultural placemaking outcomes with a diverse range of creatives, stakeholders and practitioners. Below our current collaborators and partners:

Studio Chris Fox creating large-scale public artworks through fabrication and structural design processes.

Material Engagement

Our projects integrate material-led research and development, using reclaimed and heritage materials.

Cultural Collaboration

We work in long, protocol-led collaborations with First Nations partners — including Mimal Land Management, Gujaga Foundation, Gamay Rangers, Yerrabingin and Jacob Nash — and with cultural, government and industry stakeholders across multi-year civic projects.

Computational Workflow

We develop bespoke computational design and DfMA workflows — parametric geometry, structural analysis integration and digital-to-fabrication pipelines — for civic-scale steel, timber and lighting works. Peer-reviewed at IASS 2023 and Springer (2024).

Site Understanding

Every project starts with geological, historical and cultural analysis, hearing stories and walking the site.

Process

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Jacob Nash

Hunt Quietly
Founding Director
Artist + Designer

Jacob’s ancestral land on his Mothers side is in the Daly River. His work crosses over between Theatre, Film, TV, Fine Art, Public Art and Curation. He uses all these experiences to create iconic images that talk about the stories, people and country from a First Nations perspective.
 
Nash’s work includes numerous Awarded production credits and he founded his own studio practice, Hunt Quietly. Jacob is currently a board member at Belvoir Street Theatre. He also holds the position of Creative Artist in Residence at the Sydney Festival. 

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Gabriele Ulacco

Shop 1 Projects
Project Management,
Delivery and
Documentation

Shop 1 Projects is a bespoke consultancy focused on detailed design, technical resolution and delivery of public art projects. Working closely with artists, fabricators, curators, architects and clients, Gabriele draws on experience in the architecture and construction industries to help realise complex and intricate works, often in the context of large scale infrastructure, commercial and public domain projects.

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