Dean McCrillis (born 1990) is a Maine based artist, curator and outdoorsman. Expanding on the principles learned as an amateur naturalist, his work explores elements of ecology and the relationship between wilderness and modernity. His paintings serve as a bridge between natural and personal history.

He received his BFA in painting at the University of Southern Maine and has attended residencies at Signal Fire Arts in California and Hewnoaks in Maine. In 2025, McCrillis had a solo show as the artist in residence at Cove Street Arts in Portland, Maine. His work has also been featured at the L.C. Bates Museum.

“I grew up in an area where connection to the outdoors was a part of engaging within your community, it was fundamental to a lifestyle shared by many. I was taught how to hunt and fish by family and friends. I learned how to read and understand the way wild places worked. To look for subtleties in seemingly complicated environments. Painting keeps me engaged in that process. It is a thread connecting me home. The pieces are a confluence of ideas, memories, and shared stories.”

CV

Read Portland Press Herald art critic, Jorge S. Arango’s, review of McCrilli's’s Cove Street residency exhibition here.

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