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Mark Braunias

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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

Mark Braunias was born in Tauranga. His father was Johann Braunias, an Austrian-born housepainter. Mark attended Mt Maunganui College, and later worked at the Waterfront Industry Commission offices at Mt 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." Steve described his brother's death of a brain bleed in December 2024, in an obituary in the NZ Herald.

Career

Mark 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 Mark Braunias at Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco during the artist's residency in 2011. Photograph by Heidi De Vries.

2002: Dunedin Public Art Gallery

2005: William Hodges Fellowship, Invercargill

2007: Tylee Cottage, Whanganui

2011: Fulbright/Wallace scholarship for a residency at the Headlands Centre for the Arts, San Francisco.

2019: Dunedin School of Art

Collections

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

References

  1. ^ "Steve Braunias: Well-known painter Mark Braunias dies". NZ Herald. 30 December 2024. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  2. ^ "Prolific artist Mark Braunias dies". Otago Daily Times. 18 December 2024. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  3. "Prolific New Zealand artist Mark Braunias dies". RNZ. 18 December 2024. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  4. "Steve Braunias: when the family home is up for sale". NZ 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 (7 November 2024). "Art seen: November 7". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  7. "About". Mark Braunias. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  8. "Lowdown: Shock Farewells & End Of An Era". thebigidea.nz. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  9. ^ "Revealed: 'Vibrant' work wins Parkin Drawing Prize 2021". NZ Herald. 31 July 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  10. ^ "BRAUNIAS, Mark". The Arts House Trust. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  11. "as others see us... • Invercargill Public Art Gallery". www.invercargillpublicartgallery.nz. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  12. "Tylee Cottage". Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery. 30 March 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
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