Artists

Judith Dean (b. 1965)

Judith Dean studied Fine Art at Wimbledon School of Art (1988) and at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (1993), with a scholarship from the Netherlands Universities Foundation for International Co-operation (1992). She won two Awards to Individual Artists from the London Arts Board (1996 and 1999) and completed a public commission for the London Borough of Camden (2000).

Since winning the Jerwood Sculpture Prize in 2005 Judith has exhibited nationally and internationally. She has held solo exhibitions at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2006), and at The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, following a six month artist residency (2006). In 2006 she also exhibited in the Whitstable Biennale, and at Beaconsfield in conjunction with a symposium on regeneration and the arts in North Lambeth. Dean currently lives and works in London.

Dean is a re-active artist who responds to whatever context she finds herself in, using a wide range of materials and methodologies including sculpture, installation, video and performance. Martina Droth writes in the exhibition catalogue for Plot, the show that concluded a six month residency with the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere, 'Her work consists partly in isolating objects, changing them a little, but most importantly, noticing them in the first place. Thus, her aim is not to elevate or beautify the banal, let alone to romanticise it, although sometimes she almost incidentally creates objects of beauty, by observing and attending to them. It is this willingness to take note, to consider the habitual or mundane, that underlies all Dean's practice.' (M. Droth, 'Places, plots and the nature of things' in Plot, Wordsworth Trust exhibition catalogue, 2006, p. 30).

Select Bibliography

Exhibition catalogue, Plot, Wordsworth Trust 3º W Gallery, Grasmere, 2006.
Exhibition catalogue, The Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London, 2002.
Exhibition catalogue, Testing the System, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 1996.
M. Gooding, exhibition catalogue, Seventh Mostyn Open, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno, 1996.
S. Grant, 'John, I'm Only Dancing, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh', The Independent, August 2000.
S. Hubbard, 'In Conjunction with Hales', Time Out, October 1997.
W. Wakely, 'Judith Dean, Hales Gallery', Artist's Newsletter, June 1997.
G. Williams, exhibition catalogue, Jerwood Sculpture Prize, Jerwood Space, London, 2005.