page_title: Diana Dean
section_title: Art
hierarchical_section_title: Diana Dean / Art
caption_attribution_description: English: Symmetry in Opposition, Stainless Steel, Castleford Civic Centre, West Yorkshire, UK, 1970.
context_page_description: Diana Bridget Alice Dean is a Canadian artist who has been based on Saltspring Island since 1982.
context_section_description: Dean had her first solo sculpture show in 1966 at the Association of International Artists' Gallery in London and has had 21 solo exhibitions across England and Canada. In 1970 she was commissioned to do a public sculpture for the new Castleford Civic Centre and created "Symmetry in Opposition." 
   
  Despite earning a distinction in sculpture at university and subsequent awards for her sculptural work, Dean turned to painting after emigrating to Canada for lack of resources and space. Her initial dedication to abstraction gradually gave way to increasing realism. The stylistic influence of the Renaissance masters and modernists such as Van Gogh or Balthus are evident in her figural work. She often casts everyday characters into mythological or spiritual narratives drawn from diverse cultures and periods as in "Innana Descending into the Underworld" (1986), "The Ritual" (1986) or her self-portrait as "Diana the Huntress" (1994). 
   Drawing heavily on personal biography, the artist has repeatedly addressed issues of female strength, independence, and empowerment. Works such as "Woman Pushing a Rock Up a Hill" (1984), "He Lit a Fire as the Morning Mist Arose" (1992) and "Seven Stages of Woman" (1999) simultaneously reflect personal struggles and common feminist concerns.  
  
  The natural beauty of the landscape and coastline of British Columbia has also been a major theme in her work since the late 1980s and continues to inspire contemporary work. In this regard she follows in the footsteps of the Group of Seven, particularly Emily Carr.  
  Her work is held by numerous public and private collections across Canada including the MacLaren Art Centre, the Canada Council Art Bank, Confederation Centre of the Arts, and the Surrey Public Art Gallery in BC. In 2009 Dean exhibited at the Florence Biennale with a panel, "The Kitchen," from her Banquet Series, a 68-foot-long series of 10 canvases completed over the course of a decade. In 2016 Dean was inducted into the Royal Academy of Canadian Artists.
caption: Symmetry in Opposition, Stainless Steel, Castleford Civic Centre, West Yorkshire, UK, 1970.
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