dean raybould

"Art can be seen as an unconscious search for an authentic self, and here searching is the main narrative thread. Stringing loosely together universal questions of belonging and identity-national and cultural, personal and spiritual... or joining knotty contemporary realities with humanity's hardwired hunt for a tribal hearth. Salient searches that are often unresolved like the ambiguities portrayed in these works."

Dean Raybould is a Nelson based highly illustrative New Zealand artist, with a penchant for wordplay in the titles of his paintings. Dean's paintings on found objects, glass, wood, boards and canvas are interlaced with social and environmental commentary, black humour and ambiguous musings on human existence. The interplay of words, flora and fauna, birds, musical instruments, music notes and pattern all combine to create a mystical dream-like trance of finely executed treasures. Native birds are a main feature within his work. These birds are often transformed; featuring as tartan covered planes, spectres or human-like creatures wearing clothes.

Themes within his work often tackle socio-political and environmental issues, but Dean invites the viewer to participate in this fantastical world of humour, enabling people to engage with the more serious themes within these whimsical images. Often known for his lyrical and humorous artworks Dean's pieces evoke a New Zealand surrealist environment that has its roots firmly grounded in his inimitable "tongue in cheek" style.