Mataio Austin Dean
Mataio Austin Dean – BA/BFA
Mataio Austin Dean (b. 1996) grew up in Portsmouth with a Guyanese mother and an English father. He uses intaglio printmaking to create images and symbols which explore England and Guyana's darkly intertwined histories; throwing light upon moments of resistance as well as unearthing stories of both coloniality and rebellion embedded in English landscape and architecture. Austin Dean’s practice is research-driven, exploring Marxism as a framework for emancipatory praxis. English and Guyanese oral cultures are at the heart of Austin Dean's work. Reimagining, writing, and performing folksong and poetry breathes life into the printed landscape, making the past tangible whilst presenting liberatory modes with which to confront the present.