Dean Whittaker

Easily read at first but complex and dark beneath the surface.

I draw inspiration from New Zealand artists Robyn Kahukiwa, Rita Angus and Peter Gossage who tell their own, unique tales of Aotearoa in visually graphic ways.

I work in mixed media. Each work is individually designed and hand cut. The story and narrative come together quickly but, as always, for the fashion conscious, deciding what each wahine should wear can take a matter of weeks and a series of costume changes - which speaks to my training as a fashion graduate of Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design.

Stylistically, my work nods at tradition but shuns its masculine, heteronormative representation of OUR world in favour of a new, contemporary narrative.

Dean is mixed heritage Māori and Pākehā and grew up in Te Raki-pae-wehnua, Tāmaki Makaurau (Northshore, Auckland). He is a Fine Arts graduate from Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, majoring in Fashion. Two years ago he decided to reclaim the language of his Tīpuna and learn te reo which has heavily influenced his art practice.