Dean Stewart, Northern Rivers-based mixed media artist, smiling and seated in front of a rustic wooden backdrop, wearing glasses and a relaxed button-down shirt.

Dean Stewart is an artist and designer based in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia.

Dean’s approach is grounded in the collection, curation and re-purposing of found objects, salvage materials and discarded remnants into three-dimensional, mixed media works which acknowledge the origins and authenticity of the materials and objects used while transforming them into considered, contemporary assemblages. 

Dean has an innate sense of three dimensional space and form as well as understanding the importance of shape, texture, composition and craft, all of which he brings to his artistic creations.

His work can be found in private collections in Lennox Head, Ballina, Mullumbimby, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Oxfordshire, UK.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2026 — TRANS/FORM, Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Ballina

  • 2025 — Material Memory, Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre (Aug–Nov)

  • 2025 — Direction Forward, Lone Goat Gallery, Byron Bay (Feb–March)

  • 2024 — Selected Works, BSA Project Space, Byron School of Art

AWARDS & PRIZES

  • 2026 — Small Worlds Sculpture Prize, Trackways Sculpture, Murwillumbah — Winner

  • 2026 — Wollumbin Art Award, Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre — Finalist

  • 2026 — Brisbane Rotary Art Show — Finalist

  • 2026 — Inside This Box Art Prize, Corner Store Gallery, Orange — Finalist

  • 2024 — SWELL Smalls Art Prize, Broadbeach Cultural Centre, QLD — Finalist

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

  • 2026 — Fifty Squared Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne

  • 2026 — Small Mid-Year Exhibition, Red Gallery, Melbourne

  • 2026 — Micro 10, Station Street Co-Op, Bangalow, NSW

  • 2026 — Mosman Art Walk, Mosman, NSW

  • 2023 — Exit 9, Graduate Exhibition, Byron School of Art

  • 2022 — Falling Into Place, Byron School of Art

COMMISSIONS & SPECIAL PROJECTS

  • 2025 — Coopers “Forever Original” Outdoor Advertising Campaign, Sydney

RESIDENCIES

  • 2026 — Northern Rivers Artist Exchange Residency Program, Grafton Regional Gallery, in partnership with Arts Northern Rivers

EDUCATION

  • Byron School of Art, Mullumbimby NSW — Visual Arts Research & Portfolio (VARP), 2023; Visual Arts Practice (VAP), 2022; Foundation in Visual Arts (FYVA), 2021

  • Sydney Institute of Technology, Enmore Design Centre — Diploma of Arts, Interior Design, 1994

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