Gully and Grove – Dean Venrooy

In Gully and Grove Banks Peninsula artist Dean Venrooy turns his gaze to the shrouded hills and valleys of his home environment. These finely executed studies of flora and fauna are both naturalistic and highly theatrical – small landscapes seemingly abandoned by human presence now left to the encroachment of local bird life.

Working on ocean-worn glass, gesso panel, found stones and other objects, Venrooy uses the scale of Victorian memento or miniature keepsakes to present these chemeric worlds of exquisite detail, gentle palette and portentous composition, be it in the singular gaze of a morepork or the studied tableaux of a trio of keruru. The result is an evocative series of small portals into an imagined world, something to peer into, puzzle over and admire.

“Venrooy revels in creating elegant rhythms, symmetries and visual melodies”
– Wellington art critic Mark Amery.