Dean Ansell (b. 1997, he/they) is a multidisciplinary artist of Melanesian (Riḡorabana, Balawaia, Papua Niugini), Maltese, and Anglo-Celtic descent, based in Magandjin, Australia. His practice connects cultural heritage to material processes that engage his body and the environment. Working across installation, soundscape, and embodied performance, Ansell interprets Melanesian mythologies and ritual practices through a contemporary diasporic lens. By correlating inherited knowledge with personal experiences of cultural displacement, his work expresses the layered complexities of Melanesian diasporic identity.
He has exhibited in galleries and spaces across Australia including Institute of Modern Art, Outer Space, Milani Carpark Gallery, Blindside Gallery, Bus Projects, and Wreckers Artspace. He has graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) and was the recipient of the 2023 Hilde Chenhall Memorial Scholarship at the Queensland University of Technology. He is invested in the local arts ecology, working across multiple Magandjin galleries.
I acknowledge the Jagera and Turrbal people as the traditional owners of the lands on which I live and practice. I pay my deepest respects to elders, past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge the significant role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have and continue to play within my community.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
The Earth is Alway Wet, The Ground is Always Moving, The Condensery, Toogoolawah (upcoming)
Ash in the Ancestral Mouth, Sawtooth ARI, Tasmania (upcoming)
2025
ḡaumaḡauma (act of taming, recognition of the bloodline), Bus Projects, Melbourne
The Riḡorabana, The Balawaia, Outer Space Gallery, Brisbane
2024
Second Nature, Third Space, Wreckers Artspace, Brisbane
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Signals from Below, Stetlari, Brisbane (upcoming)
Platform 2026, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
2025
A Narrow Strip Along a Steep Edge, Fort Lytton National Park, Brisbane
Hell is full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good works, Blindside Gallery, Melbourne
2024
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, Milani Carpark Gallery, Brisbane
2023
Theremonic, VENTspace, Brisbane
inFORM 2023 QUT Visual Arts Graduate Exhibition, Queensland University of Technology Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane
PUBLIC EVENTS
2026
Ground Matter (live performance with Oscar Keating), Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (upcoming)
Inherited Frequencies (live performance with Nadeem Tiafau Eshraghi), Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (upcoming)
Platform 2026 Artist Talk, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
2025
The Riḡorabana, The Balawaia Artist Talk with Jocelyn Flynn, Outer Space, Brisbane
An Extended Sound Performance with Yvette Ofa Agapow, Fish Lane, Brisbane
2024
Tectonic Noise (live performance with Connor Andree-Evarts), Outer Space, Brisbane
2023
Historical Contours of Barrambin (public artwork), Barrambin, Brisbane
AWARDS, PRIZES, SCHOLARSHIPS
2023
Recipient, 2023 Hilde Chenhall Memorial Visual Arts Scholarship, Queensland University of Technology
2015
Recipient, Young Artist Award, TAFE Queensland East Coast
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Robert Leonard, Impressario, Town Hall no. 4, September 2025, p. 2
Gabrielle Bergman, “A Narrow Strip Along a Steep Edge”, 18 June 2025, https://lemonadeletters.com.au/a-narrow-strip-along-a-steep-edge/
Pamela See, “Exhibition review: A Narrow Strip Along a Steep Edge, Fort Lytton, Brisbane”, Artshub, 13 May 2025, https://www.artshub.com.au/news/reviews/exhibition-review-a-narrow-strip-along-a-steep-edge-fort-lytton-brisbane-2794338/
Jocelyn Flynn, “Inside, between and beyond”, Outer Space, 25 April 2025, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5fe13ab7cf529e5ed05649dd/t/680b06856e17970f8e94c1dd/1745553029726/Exhibition+Text+-+Dean+Ansell+.pdf
Kyle McIntyre, “Hell is full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good works”, Blindside Gallery, January 30 2025, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RGSv4DtG-jEzstiPWx-8E_L8mRhz5IVX/view?usp=sharing
Kyle McIntyre, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”, Carpark Gallery, August 3 2024, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CO5-qzgCNoGLeolueFzaomDsbH7syptp/view
Sally Molloy, “2023 inFORM: QUT Visual Arts Graduate Exhibition”, Lemonade Letters to Art, November 22 2023, https://lemonadeletters.com.au/2023/11/22/inform-qut-visual-arts-graduate-exhibition-2023/
TEXTS
“Contaminated”, Exhibition title, Outer Space, Brisbane. 2024. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WN7I1LxWzK8mnuJIlY2N_Gqe8WC4BB5S/view
EDUCATION
2021-23
BVA with Distinction (6.176), Queensland University of Technology, QLD
2020
Online micro credential, CEH.1-ENx European Paintings: From Leonardo to Rembrandt to Goya, Universidad Carlos iii de Madrid (UC3Mx)
2015
VA Diploma, TAFE Queensland East Coast, QLD