Biography Graham Dean (b. 1951) grew up with his sister Christina in Birkenhead, Merseyside, in the United Kingdom. He went to the Laird School of Art, Birkenhead, from 1968-70 and Bristol University, Faculty of Art and Design from 1970-73. There he obtained a Bachelor of arts (1st) degree. As well as visual art, language is an important means of expression for Dean. He gives his exhibitions and individual works striking titles, makes videos about his paintings and does collaborations with musicians using his works. In addition, he has taught at Bristol Art College in 1976, Craydon College of Art in 1979, Sunderland Art College in 1980, Swansea Art College in 1981, Brighton Art College in 1981, Brighton Art College in 1996, British School in Rome in 1992. In 1974 he exhibited his work for the first time, at the notorious and controversial Nicholas Treadwell Gallery in London. He went on to be represented by several other galleries both in London and abroad. Dean’s first solo show was at Bristol Arts Centre in 1973 while he was still a student. Amongst other early exhibitions he showed at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris, in 1977, Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1978, John Moores 12 in 1980, ICA London in 1982; from 1982 to 1997 he was featured in a world-touring exhibition showing in over 50 of the top museums, alongside Rauschenberg, Stella, Richter and Tapies, among others. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1997 and 1999, the National Portrait Gallery in 2001, and from 2005 to the present day at the TEFAF, Maastricht and Pan Art Fair Amsterdam.
Graham Dean has had over 50 solo shows, including at the Basel Art Fair in 1987, the Nerlino Gallery, New York, in 1989 and 1990, and the Bath and Brighton Museums and Art Galleries, 1996, 1999, and 2012. More recent solo shows have been at Waterhouse and Dodd in London from 2005 to 2012 and at Frans Jacobs and Judith Wolberink, Amsterdam, from 2006 to 2014. In 2009 Dean was invited to show at the Venice Biennale by a Dutch arts organization. Other major exhibitions devoted to painting in which Dean was represented included XX Trouble Spot: Painting (1979), XX title XX (1980). Not only did Dean produce the best work from his early ‘Realist’ period, but he was also featured in Critics’ choice exhibitions and featured in an ‘artist to watch for the future’ piece in the London Evening Standard. Deans’ work spans over forty years. In 1995, XX name of the curator XX of the Williamson Museum and Art Gallery in Birkenhead staged the first retrospective of his works on paper under the title ‘The Green Room and other Paintings’. This exhibition was subsequently featured in 1996 in the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Brighton under the same title, ‘The Green Room and other Paintings’.
Awards and honors
Graham Dean has received several awards and honors. In 1991, he received the Senior Award in Painting at the British School in Rome also known as ‘Prix de Rome’ and in 2000, specifically for his drawings, the ICCD studio residency in Trivandrum, Kerala, India. In 2003 he received the International Fellowship Award at the Vermont Studio Center, USA.