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Mark Braunias

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New Zealand painter (1955–2024)

Mark Braunias
BornMark Colin Braunias
(1955-08-20)20 August 1955
Tauranga, New Zealand
Died17 December 2024(2024-12-17) (aged 69)
Hamilton, New Zealand
Alma materUniversity of Canterbury Faculty of Arts
StyleAbstract
WebsiteOfficial website

Mark Colin Braunias (20 August 1955 – 17 December 2024) was a New Zealand semi-abstract painter who experimented with quilt making and glass blowing. He won the $25,000 Parkin Drawing Prize (2021) and two Wallace Art awards, and his work is held in important national art collections including Te Papa Museum, Christchurch Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the Sarjeant Art Gallery. Braunias lived and worked in the coastal town of Kawhia, and the city of Hamilton. His younger brother is the writer Steve Braunias.

Personal life

Braunias was born in Tauranga on 20 August 1955, one of four sons to Johann Braunias, an Austrian-born house painter. He attended Mount Maunganui College, and later worked at the Waterfront Industry Commission offices at Mount Maunganui wharf. After extensive travel, he returned to New Zealand to attend the Ilam School of Art in Christchurch. He graduated with a BFA from the University of Canterbury, Ilam School of Fine Arts, in 1988, the year of his first solo exhibition.

As a child Braunias was inspired by the art his father created in his spare time. His brother Steve describes these as "conservatively painted landscapes."

Illness and death

Braunias and all three of his brothers suffered from atrial fibrillation, a condition causing an unsteady heartbeat. The combination of high blood pressure and the blood-thinning agents, which he needed for his condition, led to a high potential risk of a cerebral haemorrhage.

Braunias died from a cerebral haemorrhage at Waikato Hospital on 17 December 2024, at the age of 69.

Career

Braunias lived and worked in a former Bank of New Zealand building in Kawhia, which he bought in 1996. He used the bank vault as his storeroom for canvases.

He was a prolific artist who exhibited frequently for more than three decades. He showed at the Peter McLeavey Gallery 13 times and the Jonathan Smart Gallery ten times. He also exhibited at Anna Miles Gallery, Dunedin School of Art, Bath Street Gallery, Brett McDowell Gallery, Ilam Campus Gallery, Gregory Flint Gallery, City Gallery Wellington, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, the Auckland Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Tauranga Art Gallery, the Sarjeant Gallery, and the Christchurch Art Gallery, among others.

Jonathan Smart, owner of the Jonathan Smart Gallery in Christchurch, said Braunias made paintings "that lean towards abstraction that are also deeply human."

Braunias also worked as an art tutor at Unitec in Auckland between 1993 and 2013.

Awards

  • 1992: Paramount Award, the Wallace Art Awards
  • 2010: Fulbright-Wallace Arts Trust Award
  • 2021: Parkin Drawing Prize

Art residencies

An exhibition by Braunias at Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco during the artist's residency in 2011. Braunias is the man on the right. Photograph by Heidi De Vries.

Collections

The work of Mark Braunias is held in public gallery and private collections including Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum of New Zealand, Christchurch Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, The Sarjeant Art Gallery, Tauranga Art Gallery, Invercargill Art Gallery and Museum, Ashburton Art Gallery, University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, Massey University, Lincoln University, The Fletcher Trust Collection, Art House Trust Collection and the State Library of Queensland.

References

  1. ^ Braunias, Steve (30 December 2024). "Well-known painter Mark Braunias dies". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  2. ^ Solomon, Serena (18 December 2024). "Prolific artist Mark Braunias dies". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  3. Solomon, Serena (18 December 2024). "Prolific New Zealand artist Mark Braunias dies". Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  4. "Steve Braunias: when the family home is up for sale". The New Zealand Herald. 1 March 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  5. Dignan, James (31 October 2021). "Art seen: October 31". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  6. Dignan, James (3 October 2024). "Art seen: October 3". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  7. "About – Exhibition History". Mark Braunias. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  8. "Lowdown: Shock Farewells & End Of An Era". The Big Idea. 19 December 2024. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  9. ^ Trigger, Sophie (31 July 2021). "Revealed: 'Vibrant' work wins Parkin Drawing Prize 2021". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  10. Daly-Peoples, John (25 April 2022). "Two-faced portrait wins Wallace Art Awards". National Business Review. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  11. "BRAUNIAS, Mark". The Arts House Trust. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  12. "as others see us..." Invercargill Public Art Gallery. 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Artshouse was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. "Tylee Cottage". Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery. 30 March 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
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