Dean Cross was born and raised on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country and is a Worimi man through his paternal bloodline primarily working across installation, sculpture and painting. Interested in the collisions of materials, ideas and histories, Cross is motivated by an understanding that his practice sits within a continuum of the oldest living culture on Earth – and enacts First Nations sovereignty through expanded contemporary art methodologies. His cross-disciplinary practice often confronts the legacies of modernism, rebalancing dominant cultural and social histories.

Cross’ work was exhibited in the Artist Room at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2025 and subsequently acquired. He was the winner of the First Nations Artist Prize, Gosford Art Prize, in 2025. In 2024, he was the inaugural recipient of the Australian Indigenous Artist-in-Residence Program, National WW1 Museum and Memorial, Kansas City. Recent significant group exhibitions include NEW SOUTH, Hazelhurst Arts Centre, curated by Sebastian Goldspink (2024); Octopus 23: THE FIELD, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, curated by Tamsin Hopkinson (2023); Free/State, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, curated by Sebastian Goldspink (2022); and Primavera 2021: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, curated by Hannah Presley (2021). In 2023, Cross presented Things That Are Real: Alvaro Barrington x Dean Cross, a major collaborative exhibition at Cement Fondu, Sydney. Cross’ work is held by major institutions including the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.