In TRANS/FORM, Dean Stewart extends his practice of dismantling and reassembling found objects, focusing on the tension between familiarity and reconstruction. Two works begin as timber rocking horses - one reconfigured as Pegasus, the other transformed into Fire Horse. Once playful and recognisable, their components are taken apart, laid bare and restructured into new identities that hover between figure and abstraction.
Elsewhere, Stewart works with salvaged timber, painted fragments and domestic remnants to construct tightly balanced, wall-based assemblages. In Reform and Tableaux, architectural grids, rulers and boxed compartments suggest order and measurement, while subtle shifts in colour and alignment disrupt symmetry. In Shifting Light, folded yellow planes radiate across a circular ground, creating movement through repetition and rotation.
Across the exhibition, forms are not erased but reorganised. Surfaces retain chipped paint, drilled holes and worn edges - evidence of previous lives that remain visible within the new structure. Transformation here is neither theatrical nor complete; it is incremental, physical and unresolved.
By moving across and through form - disassembling, flattening, layering and rebuilding - Stewart reveals change as a process of negotiation. Objects transition from utility to abstraction, from childhood memory to constructed composition. TRANS/FORM invites viewers to consider how identity, structure and meaning are shaped not by replacement, but by reconfiguration.
ARTIST BIO
Dean Stewart is an artist and designer based in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. His practice is grounded in the collection, curation and re-purposing of found and reclaimed materials into three-dimensional mixed media assemblages.
Drawing on a background in interior design and visual merchandising, Stewart brings a strong understanding of space, proportion, texture and composition to his work, His intuitive, hands-on process honours the authenticity and history of each material while transforming discarded remnants into considered contemporary forms.
Dean's work is held in private collections in Australia and the United Kingdom.
REFORM 2026
117 X 142 cm
reclaimed timber boxes, book covers, timber rulers, cardboard & steel
$1,800.00
SHIFTING LIGHT 2026
80 x 80 cm
reclaimed timber, steel & resin
$1,100.00
FIRE HORSE 2026
100 x 52 cm
reclaimed and deconstructed timber rocking horse & paint
$950.00
PEGASUS 2026
90 x 55 cm
reclaimed and deconstructed timber rocking horse & paint
$950.00
TABLEAUX
73 x 73 cm
reclaimed timber boxes, book covers & timber rulers
$1,700.00