BIO
COMING NEXT
WRAPPED | Christmas Group Show | Opening 19 November
Bringing together work by 23 gallery artists, this show offers a diverse mix of paintings, sculpture and works on paper. Taking place at 182 Jervois Road, Herne Bay, Auckland.
About John Boyd Dunlop
John Boyd Dunlop is a self-taught visual artist based in Napier, Hawke’s Bay. Beginning his painting practice at the age of 68, he developed a bold, intuitive approach shaped by a rich inner world and a life well lived. His playful paintings bring people and animals together in imaginative, often absurd arrangements, combining raw vitality with a keen sense of humour.
Frequently described as Naïve Art, Outsider Art or Art Brut, his work resists easy categorisation. Intricate patterns, surreal hybrids and exuberant characters inhabit candy-coloured dreamscapes. Buxom women clutching roosters and cat-like creatures with painted toenails riding buffalo form part of a personal mythology filled with joy, chaos and curious storytelling.
Art runs through the Boyd Dunlop family. The son of Hawke’s Bay enamelist June Boyd Dunlop and father of artist Richard Boyd Dunlop, John was inspired in part by watching his son’s artistic development. His own experiences as a fisherman, farmhand and market grower inform his agrarian scenes, alongside a lifelong love of collecting objects, artefacts and ideas.
Since taking up painting, Boyd Dunlop has exhibited regularly and developed an extensive body of work held in private collections throughout Australasia.
Browse John Boyd Dunlop’s available paintings below, or enquire about a piece.
Exhibitions & events
MINI | Group show | 21 November 2025
Face Forward | Group portrait show | 14–30 August 2025
