{{Short description|New Zealand painter (1955–2024)}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}} {{Infobox artist | name = Mark Braunias | birth_date = {{Birth date|1955|8|20|df=y}} | birth_place = Tauranga, New Zealand | birth_name = Mark Colin Braunias | death_date = {{Death date and age|2024|12|17|1955|8|20|df=y}} | death_place = Hamilton, New Zealand | alma_mater = University of Canterbury Faculty of Arts | style = Abstract | website = {{Official website|markbraunias.com}} }}
'''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 of Johann Braunias, an Austrian-born house painter.<ref name="Herald241230"/> 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.<ref name="Herald241230">{{Cite web |last=Braunias |first=Steve |date=30 December 2024 |title=Well-known painter Mark Braunias dies |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/well-known-painter-mark-braunias-dies/VCY3LMAB3VEERDIXT5H6RIELBQ/ |access-date=30 December 2024 |website=The New Zealand Herald}}</ref><ref name="ODT241218">{{Cite web |last=Solomon |first=Serena |date=18 December 2024 |title=Prolific artist Mark Braunias dies |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/prolific-artist-mark-braunias-dies |access-date=30 December 2024 |website=Otago Daily Times }}</ref>
As a child Braunias was inspired by ''Mad'' magazine artists, in particular the legendary Bill Elder. His father Johann was also a painter. His brother Steve described his father’s work as "conservatively painted landscapes."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Solomon |first=Serena |date=18 December 2024 |title=Prolific New Zealand artist Mark Braunias dies |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/537063/prolific-new-zealand-artist-mark-braunias-dies |access-date=30 December 2024 |website=Radio New Zealand}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1 March 2019 |title=Steve Braunias: when the family home is up for sale |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/steve-braunias-when-the-family-home-is-up-for-sale/UNCPYQGTSYSRL4QTFGSWQ3TJCU/ |access-date=30 December 2024 |website=The New Zealand Herald }}</ref>
===Illness and death=== Braunias and 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.<ref name="Herald241230"/>
Braunias died from a cerebral haemorrhage at Waikato Hospital on 17 December 2024, at the age of 69.<ref name="Herald241230"/><ref name="ODT241218" />
==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.<ref name="Herald241230"/>
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,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dignan |first=James |date=31 October 2021 |title=Art seen: October 31 |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/art-seen-october-31 |access-date=31 December 2024 |website=Otago Daily Times }}</ref> Bath Street Gallery, Brett McDowell Gallery,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dignan |first=James |date=3 October 2024 |title=Art seen: October 3 |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/art-seen-october-3 |access-date=31 December 2024 |website=Otago Daily Times}}</ref> 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. His last exhibition was at the Ann Packer Gallery in Whanganui, in November 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About – Exhibition History |url=https://markbraunias.com/about#/exhibition-history-mark-braunias |access-date=30 December 2024 |website=Mark Braunias}}</ref>
Jonathan Smart, owner of the Jonathan Smart Gallery in Christchurch, said Braunias made paintings "that lean towards abstraction that are also deeply human."<ref name="ODT241218"/>
Braunias also worked as an art tutor at Unitec in Auckland between 1993 and 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 December 2024 |title=Lowdown: Shock Farewells & End Of An Era |url=https://thebigidea.nz/stories/lowdown-shock-farewells-end-of-an-era |access-date=30 December 2024 |website=The Big Idea |language=}}</ref>
==Awards== *1992: Paramount Award, the Wallace Art Awards<ref name="Herald210731">{{Cite web |last=Trigger |first=Sophie |date=31 July 2021 |title=Revealed: 'Vibrant' work wins Parkin Drawing Prize 2021 |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/mark-braunias-work-wins-2021-parkin-drawing-prize/EUND4WTAGLBE5JPD6V4A6ITKYM/ |access-date=30 December 2024 |website=The New Zealand Herald }}</ref> *2010: Fulbright-Wallace Arts Trust Award<ref>{{Cite web |last=Daly-Peoples |first=John |author-link=John Daly-Peoples |date=25 April 2022 |title=Two-faced portrait wins Wallace Art Awards |url=https://www.nbr.co.nz/two-faced-portrait-wins-wallace-art-awards/ |access-date=31 December 2024 |website=National Business Review}}</ref> *2021: Parkin Drawing Prize<ref name="Herald210731"/>
==Art residencies== thumb|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. *2002: Dunedin Public Art Gallery<ref name="Artshouse">{{Cite web |date= |title=BRAUNIAS, Mark |url=https://collection.artshousetrust.co.nz/persons/191/braunias-mark |access-date=30 December 2024 |website=The Arts House Trust}}</ref> *2005: William Hodges Fellowship, Invercargill<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017 |title=as others see us... |url=https://www.invercargillpublicartgallery.nz/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/as-others-see-us/ |access-date=30 December 2024 |website=Invercargill Public Art Gallery}}</ref><ref name="Artshouse" /> *2007: Tylee Cottage, Whanganui<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 March 2021 |title=Tylee Cottage |url=https://sarjeant.org.nz/tylee-residency-2/ |access-date=30 December 2024 |website=Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery |language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref name="Artshouse" /> *2011: Fulbright/Wallace scholarship for a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco.<ref name="Artshouse" /> *2019: Dunedin School of Art<ref>{{Cite web |title=BRAUNIAS, Mark |url=https://collection.artshousetrust.co.nz/persons/191/braunias-mark |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=The Arts House Trust |language=en}}</ref>
==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== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Braunias, Mark}} Category:1955 births Category:2024 deaths Category:People from Tauranga Category:People from Hamilton, New Zealand Category:20th-century New Zealand painters Category:21st-century New Zealand painters Category:Ilam School of Fine Arts alumni