Dale Christopher Wells

Dale is a contemporary sculptor, drawer and writer, born and based in Lincolnshire. Having studied Fine Art at the Grimsby Institute, and gaining his postgraduate degree at the University of Lincoln, he has shown extensively across the UK. His practice often centres around his love of professional model making, a skill fostered in his grandad’s workshop at an early age. He has worked on set design prop-boxes for European operatic productions, and currently freelances in museological scale model restorations.

Dale’s work is often inspired by his direct position in the world, in relation to global events, or political moods. Being neurodivergent, he often finds correlation between many disparate stimuli, leading to densely symbolic dioramas, which often take on the appearance of blasted vistas, or atrocity-ridden landscapes. Drawing inspiration from films such as Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man, and Ken Russell’s The Devils, these scenes of decay take on an otherworldly quality which could be considered almost proto-medieval in their heaviness. At other times, packs of degraded charity shop animals act as witnesses, or pilferers of discarded narcotics.

Many of these works are recycled, broken apart and reconfigured, creating a very real physical cycle of working which mirrors his mental whorling. Childhood toy figures and model pigs act as the drivers of these events, and scavenged animal figurines watch over the masses, with bleeding eyes, cataract white, and prisoner to the endless replay of misaligned scenes.

• The Fishing Heritage Centre, Grimsby, England.
• A Welsh Coal Mining Experience, Trehafod, Wales.
• Oasis Academy Immingham, Immingham, England.
• North Lincolnshire Museum, Scunthorpe, England.
• Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education, Grimsby, England.
• Friends of the Lincoln Tank, Lincoln, England.

Artwork in public collections

• Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, England.
• University of Lincoln, Lincoln, England.
• Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education, Grimsby, England.

Artwork in private collections

Selected works held in private collections. Further details available on request.

“It’s exactly the kind of piece that should be in the gallery! Highlight of my day too!”

— Peter Ruddick, BBC Reporter, on ZYCLONGASMAUS