Collegian Dean Cross (2003) holds first solo institutional show, ahead of Sydney exhibition.

Transdisciplinary artist Dean Cross (Class of 2003) returns to NSW’s Southern Tablelands, where he was born and raised – as the recipient of Goulburn Regional Art Gallery’s inaugural edition of The Good Initiative, a biennial $20,000 award.

The award enabled Dean to return home and to develop his first solo institutional exhibition: Icarus, My Son, which opened at the gallery in July and will tour to Sydney’s Carriageworks in November.

Left: A recent work by artist,

Right: Dean Cross  explores his creative process.

Icarus, My Son deals with the ideas of cataclysm, home, hubris, and loss. It examines the ways we think and talk about the regional versus the metropolitan.

It simultaneously draws on the myth of the young, ambitious Icarus who flies too close to the sun, only for his wings to melt, while being grounded in Dean’s experience growing up in the regions where, like so many, he was encouraged to believe that success lies outside your hometown.

Left: A mixed media by Dean Cross, Right: Dean Cross, Untitled Landscape (Bogong Moths), 2018, now in the Canberra Museum & Gallery collection.

According to Dean, the exhibition asks: ‘What does it mean to be regional, rural, remote? Remote from where? To where should I focus my aspirations? Where exactly is the so-called centre – and what will I find if I get there?’

Icarus, My Son, allowed Dean to reflect on the significance of the location and its impact on his work and thinking, bearing in mind what it might mean for local audiences and young people.

If you are around, do not miss this unique artistic experience.

Icarus, My Son is showing at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery until 28 August 2021 and at Sydney’s Carriageworks from 5 November 2021 to 30 January 2022.