The work of DEAN WEST explores different environments, character types, and human natures. Dean was born in Australia in 1983 and resides in New York City. He studied at the Queensland College of Art and is known for his intricate and highly staged photographs that take everyday occurrences beyond natural reality. Extraordinary in their tonal range, digital clarity, and artistic vision, West’s meticulously choreographed scenes, character studies, and atmospheric landscapes powerfully yet synthetically link needs to desires and documentation to invention.

The artist’s narratives draw inspiration from the diversity the visual arts offers. While the tableau photography of Stan Douglas and Jeff Wall inform Dean’s understanding of photography as a form of contemporary communication, the paintings of David Hockney and Edward Hopper provide evident aesthetic direction. The fictional world of cinema and the functional language of advertising have also clearly left their mark. His short filmography, for example what is featured in this journal, is significantly different from his photographic work as it stays within reality, and it is powerful in terms of the topics narrated.

For his 2009 series “In Piece,” he collaborated with a LEGO brick sculptor. He depicted figures within elegant North American scenery and used the collaborator’s sculpture to create the appearance of pixelation. For Dean, this quality points to the constructed nature of the image, both materially and culturally.

Dean’s work has been exhibited at important institutions around the world, including the Columbus Museum of Art (2012), Faneuli Hall Museum of Boston (2015), the Paris Expo Porte De Versailles (2015), Puls 5 Gallery in Zürich, and the Discovery Times Square Museum in New York City (2014). Dean West has been honored by the acquisition of his work by some of the most prestigious collections of contemporary art, including that of Sir Elton John.

More of Dean West’s work may be appreciated on his website, Behance, and IG