Gliff

October 2 - October 31, 2026


Installation view - front gallery

 

The finest oranges in Kawhia, town..? 
- Martin Poppelwell

It was on a number of occasions that Mark discussed the idea that painters were the only truly qualified to write on the subject of painting. That without any experience of actually building a picture or object from paint, it was almost impossible to explain or relay what is going on. Of course at the same time, he was clearly aware that there were holes in his thinking…
that’s the whole gist of ideas he would add ”they have holes (everywhere)”.

Mark Braunias makes paintings that are not straightforward. And therefore, explaining them
can lead one into a burbling culdesac of trite, they are shifty entities and prone to ambiguity…
so it’s very easy to get off on the wrong foot.

That said I discovered his painting, drawing and sculpture in an article in Art New Zealand on the ‘Rugby Player’ works from
1991 -1992 (Just after his first show with Jonathan Smart).
At the time, I really didn’t comprehend the context in which they were painted as I was not up to speed with what was happening in NZ contemporary art. However, I knew that no one had been silly or misguided enough to touch on the field of a loaded national pastime (perhaps the painters, Trevor Moffit or Garth Tapper had come close.. again I was out of one’s depth).
Nevertheless, there was something striking and poignant emanating from the dense “graunching” of large figures, players, painted and parked quite roughly, dark, all black and muddy. They were not easy works to like. 

 


Installation view - front gallery


Installation view - front gallery


Subsequently, Mark made work that further scraped and prodded a national psyche with projects in public art galleries, notably ‘Gank’ at DPAG. Again a “WTF” moment, where the artist, with an irrepressible aptitude for drawing, develops a remarkable
array of perplexed figures, a psychedelic thesaurus of mixed up “us’s” (Justin Paton writes beautifully about this project).
It was from this period that ‘Brauniasland’ was coined, very likely from a show at Peter McLeavy around the same time. And while the sheer extent of like-minded, lofty and debased figuration resonates within this term, one senses there are other underlying currents active in this universe.



Gank, 1996


Goo Goo, 2000



Installation view - front gallery


Installation view - front gallery

Evidence that the artist has left us to date, indicates a perpetual invention of systems that generate systems…all pretty much analog and crafted from space. Parallel this with what Michel Foucault wrote in 1954 (Existence and the Dream), '[a human being] is an existence carving itself out of space, shattering in chaos, exploding in pandemonium, netting itself, a scarcely breathing animal in the webs of death'. And while this thinking has perhaps a double shot of existentialism imbued, it describes an active force in form and time. Patently these are territories into which Braunias has set sail, navigating all manner of conditions. This is human nature.

These questions have stayed with me since visiting Kawhia in late 2024 - a large harbour south of Raglan.
Here he worked for over 2 decades. I encountered or sensed a quiet presence of self and a rigorous self-questioning. Like.. what am I doing? What is my vision here.. How does one build what one wants to reveal. Is it good enough..
Like much deep painting Braunias’s work is omnivorous and ‘rangy’ in its scope and reference.
The generosity inherent in his practice shows a love for the individual, himself included paradoxically present. All the us’s.

To add something I know, something that Mark would appreciate, from the poet Anne Dillard who passed away in September 2026, from her work Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 1974... ” Why do any of us have this ridiculous, wonderful chance to be alive, what does it mean to have that chance, that we are aware enough to be baffled by it. Why is there pain, why is there beauty. Does any of it have a point. If so - if not - how should we live…”

    - Martin Poppelwell, October 2026.

 


Installation view - rear gallery


Installation view - rear gallery


Installation view - rear gallery


Installation view - rear gallery

 

Installation view - front gallery Installation view - rear gallery

 

 

Images of all exhibited works are to be found in the 'Details of works' section at the bottom of the page.

To request an exhibition catalogue, email the gallery here:  Request catalogue for Mark Braunias - Gliff

 

Selected works

 


Foreign Intervention, 1988


Untitled diptych, 1995


Untitled 2014 - 2024


Luminous, 2019


Spaced Out, 2013

 

 

Details of works