Dean Ansell is a multidisciplinary artist of Melanesian (Rigorabana, Balawaia, Papua Niugini), Maltese, and Anglo-Celtic descent, based in Meanjin (Brisbane), Australia. His practice connects his cultural heritage to material processes that harness his body and the environment. Spanning installation, soundscape, and embodied performance, Ansell stages ritualistic site-responsive mediations that draw attention to natural systems of transformation. Poetically correlating these universal material changes with his personal experiences of cultural displacement, Ansell’s work is an expression of the complexities of his Melanesian diasporic experience. 

He has exhibited in several galleries and spaces in Queensland including Carpark Gallery | Milani Gallery, Wreckers Artspace, VENTspace, and performed at Outerspace. He has recently 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. In 2023, Ansell was selected to produce a public artwork in collaboration with Brisbane City Council, Victoria Park/Barrambin, and the Green Heart Fair. He was also nominated for the Hatched: National Graduate Show 2024, organised by the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. He is invested in the local arts ecology, working at the Institute of Modern Art, Queensland University of Technology Galleries and Museums, and Metro Arts, as well as supporting several other Brisbane galleries.