Keeping Curious with Dr Dean Kelland

Keeping Curious

UK based fine artist Dr Dean Kelland works with performance, photography and film to explore the underbelly of comedic characters through performative portraiture. He completed his PhD at Central St Martins with his doctoral thesis “flawed masculinities, rupturing 1950’s/60’s/70’s British Sitcom via a performance led interdisciplinary art practice’ He has regularly shown work with the IKON in Birmingham as well as recently completing a residency with New Walsall Art Gallery and the Birmingham Midland Institute. Currently he is a Fine Art course leader in Wolverhampton University and developing his own practice everyday. In this episode, we chat about how a boy from Great Barr Birmingham defied the odds to become a professional artist via a brief time working in insurance following a degree in Photography. We talk around the influence of his tutors led him on to discover a body of work around a hidden passion for sitcoms and how he boldly took his future into his own hands when taking on the gallery world. Note to self, always carry a sketchbook as you never know what opportunities may arise.