Denys Watkins

Denys Watkins is a contemporary artist. Born in 1945, he lives in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

Denys is a highly respected artist with a career spanning more than five decades, exhibiting solo since 1971. He studied at the School of Design, Wellington Polytechnic, before continuing his training in London at the Central School of Art and the Royal College of Art. In the early stage of his career, Denys was widely regarded as one of Aotearoa's finest printmakers, a medium since superseded by painting and watercolour. He went on to teach for 31 years at Elam School of Fine Arts in Tāmaki Makaurau, joining the staff in 1980.

Denys's fresh, distinctive and ingenious abstract paintings show a keen fascination and curiosity about the world. Over his career he has drawn on a wide visual encyclopaedia of cultural references, taking source inspiration from any area deemed relevant or necessary to a particular composition or series.