We have lost a man of wonderful warmth...
19 December, 2024
Applying the finishing touches – Mark Braunias in the JSG stand, Aotearoa Art Fair, April 2024
We have lost a man of wonderful warmth, and an artist over 40 years who just got better and better. He’d arrive in 'the sausage van' packed to the gunnels (loved a roadie), then move into the gallery for a week or more (a residency, he’d call it), paint over the walls and install his exhibition. We did 15 solo shows together.
“See, I sharpened that contour…cut into that red with a little more surety…and worked over the blue with a more loaded brush.”
I’ll miss those words. Mark talked of his work, of sport and of people with alacrity and good humour. He was that rare artist who even loved an art fair.
Thanks for all the mahi my dear man, your perseverance and your deep humanity. We had us some fun!
JS
Lonnie Hutchinson and Saskia Leek: Arts Foundation Laureate recipients!
25 October, 2024
We are absolutely thrilled that two of our amazing artists have been awarded Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureates for 2024!
Recognised for their outstanding practice and for their significant contributions to the arts in Aotearoa NZ, Lonnie and Saskia were both presented with Visual Arts Laureates at a sparkling awards party in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland on 18 November. Each award comes with a $35,000 gift to enable and support these high-achieving artists as they continue developing their remarkable careers.
The Laureate Selection Panel spoke of Lonnie's practice as one that has "resonated with New Zealanders and international audiences across generations and cultural backgrounds." Of Saskia, the panel commented that she "is a singular figure within her generation and an inspiration to those who have followed her."
Please view the two short videos below, where each artist talks about her practice and response to receiving a Laureate.
Lonnie Hutchinson, visual artist – 2024 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate
Saskia Leek, visual artist – 2024 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate
Saskia installing Chant Charts, 2024
Lonnie installing Waiting for le Ma'oma'o, 2012
Both Saskia and Lonnie have a long and rich history as part of the JSG stable of artists. Saskia began exhibiting here right back in 1997 with a show called Pink Furniture, while Lonnie's first solo show here was Black Pearl in 2004. To find out more, go to their individual artist's pages:
Saskia Leek
Lonnie Hutchinson
Our warmest congratulations to each of you for your splendid success. We are very proud to continue to represent you.
Jonathan Smart Gallery at the 2024 Aotearoa Art Fair
4 April, 2024
Jonathan Smart Gallery at the Aotearoa Art Fair, 18 - 21 April 2024, Viaduct Events Centre, Auckland, Booth G22
Jonathan Smart Gallery is delighted to be presenting a solo show by Mark Braunias at the 2024 Aotearoa Art Fair in Auckland. All works have been made by the artist in response to the given dimensions of the exhibition space. The result is eye-catching!
Large unstretched canvas works and a series of paintings on A3 paper will sit alongside a striking quilted fabric diptych made in collaboration with Brenda Ronowicz.
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| Dippy I |
Dippy II |
In this new body of work, Braunias has turned his colours onto high beam! Vivid oranges, cheese yellows, intense virdians and hothead reds swirl inside and out of his bulbous forms, who appear slightly trapped or contained within ambiguously abstracted spaces. In the artist’s words, “It's as if Dr Frankenstein returned from a visit to Disneyland and mixed Donald Duck's DNA with Darwin's ‘Origin of Species’ and just let it roll…”
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| Chrysalid |
Inside Orange |
A limited edition, illustrated exhibition catalogue with an interview and essay by Hamish Win will be available at the stand.
It'd be great to see you there!
Straka + Hartley-Skudder - a splendid collaboration!
25 May, 2023
We're getting rave responses from visitors to Wendy's Cigarette, a collaborative exhibition featuring paintings by Heather Straka sitting within and alongside installations by Emily Hartley-Skudder. With the spirit of the 'Overlook Hotel' from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining permeating the gallery spaces, this exhibition indulges the artists' shared love of film, mystery and the haunted aura of old buildings.
In the front gallery, the tiled and wallpapered alcove depicts a 70's-style bathroom from the Peach Cease Motel, complete with a confronting Straka painting of Hartley-Skudder herself, stern, gothic-like, and far removed from her pastel-clad and vivacious self. On the far wall, the installation Green Tea with Honey includes a tantalising portrait of Honey - resurrected from Straka's 2015/16 series Honeytrap - hung above (half) a claw-footed bath and alongside the highly-inappropriate placement of a mustard-coloured hair dryer!
installation view - Peach Crease Motel
installation view - Green Tea with Honey
Meanwhile, the back gallery has been totally transformed into what feels like a 1960's hotel lobby, featuring a luxurious red and gold patterned Axminster carpet, and a striking replica of the elevator from The Shining. Straka's exquisite portrait Concierge Lydia, along with three 'fiery' landscapes in vintage frames, perfectly occupy this space.
installation view - Red Piazza
installation view - Red Piazza
Wendy's Cigarette runs until 3pm Saturday 10 June. If you are in Christchurch during this time, please do visit - it is a must to experience. Images and details of all the works can be viewed here: https://www.jonathansmartgallery.com/Exhibitions/Wendys-Cigarette/
Captivated by Marie Le Lievre's latest works...
25 February, 2023
It has been more than two years since Marie Le Lievre presented a solo project at Jonathan Smart Gallery, so it is with much pleasure that we open Net Let on Friday 3 March.
A suite of new works, for the first time organized around a loose grid scratched into oil paint, form the basis of this exhibition. The mark-making, indeed the incisions, still feel intuitive, as does Le Lievre’s consistent and almost forensic pouring of oil paint.
A marvellous group of paintings on paper complement the bigger canvases. In these, Le Lievre’s touch with graphite drawn over duck-egg blue acrylic, suggests items of mystery assembled with both gay abandon and a slightly darker intent.
Fix Catch (Net Let) 2023, 1370 x 1370 mm
Stacked Lets (Tomes) 2022, 1670 x 1830 mm
Cookie Monster's (Tray) 2022, 1670 x 1830 mm
From the stockroom
30 July, 2022
Kia ora tātou,
Ko Meg Doughty ahau.
I have the joy and privilege of interning at Jonathan Smart Gallery this semester through a university course towards an Art History Graduate Diploma. It has been an exciting first few weeks with Anton Parsons’ and Rob Hood’s show openings, and the de-installation and installation of works at the Central Gallery.
I am a curious human and have been investigating the bountiful stockroom here where I have encountered numerous delights. From a very long list came a short list, and from this came these three works: my stockroom picks!
Anne Noble’s Eidolon series is an almost taxonomic study of the contrasting skeletal and iridescent. Eidolon #1 in particular evokes an erratic wingbeat as if frozen in stained-glass.
Pete Wheeler’s Let Me Remember My Song In The Night is luminous. The turning of these heliotropes to the ground, tongue-in-cheek, asks if it is night or if the sun has been usurped by his bright orange.
Kristy Gorman’s Dovetail is part of a group of delicate ink works that float in their frames. Like breathing, the congregated strips of ink are gently dynamic.
An occasion to celebrate!
13 May, 2022
On Friday 6 May, we were delighted to hold our first public opening for the year, that of Julia Morison's stand-out show, 3(.)6 degrees of separation. With the COVID traffic light system at orange, an appreciative and (mostly) unmasked crowd of fans and supporters gathered to celebrate the artist with Verde and brioche, while feasting their eyes on the impressive body of 110 works exhibited.
Please go to https://www.jonathansmartgallery.com/Exhibitions/36-degrees-of-separation/ for images and details
A warm welcome to Jonathan Smart Gallery for 2022
31 January, 2022
Installation view - Kulimoe’anga Stone Maka, Kumi E Manatu
A warm welcome to Jonathan Smart Gallery for 2022.
Despite an unsettled few months ahead for us all, with Omicron advancing and our usual exhibition openings unable to take place, we are nonetheless delighted with the shows scheduled for the year. We’re especially excited to commence the programme with two artists new to our stable, but who are already developing significant practices in the NZ art scene.
First up is Kulimoe’anga Stone Maka with his show Kumi E Manatu (Finding Black Tapa Memories). Images and details can be viewed on our exhibitions page, along with an informative 14 minute video of the artist discussing the making of this powerful body of works.
Next is Tyne Gordon. Tyne graduated in 2015 with a BFA (Hons) in painting from the University of Canterbury, and in 2018 was the recipient of the Olivia Spencer Bower Award. Her show is called Wet Plate, and features new paintings alongside sculptural objects. The exhibition will be available for viewing in the gallery from 11am on Saturday 26 February.
Mark Braunias wins the 2021 Parkin Drawing Prize!
19 August, 2021
In Search of the Saccharine Underground, 2021
Congratulations, Mark, on your thrilling win of this year's Parkin Drawing Prize. The work ‘In Search of the Saccharine Underground’ is a colourful, large-scale diptych made from ink and acrylic on industrial builders’ paper. Judge Dr Sarah Farrah described it as "fresh, spirited and uncontainable", with the artist's "intuitive and spontaneous mark-making" being "audacious, comic and compelling".
The term ‘Saccharine Underground' was coined by American rock music critic Greil Marcus in the late 1960s to describe certain aspects of contemporary pop music which had an underlying ‘heavy’ edge but was presented with ironic superficiality. Braunias elaborates: “We’re talking counter-culture.... the music sounds saccharine – kind of cheesy – but there’s a profundity within the lyrical content.” He relates this to his practice, where he "takes the cute but gives it a formal modernist edge. It’s not just about doing cartoons and something funny; there is a seriousness behind the work.”
We're very much looking forward to Mark's upcoming exhibition (of the same title as the winning Parkin work) opening here at JSG on Friday 8 October.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/125935743/mark-braunias-wins-parkin-drawing-prize-with-colourful-comic-diptych
https://parkinprize.nz/https://parkinprize.nz/Modernist-abstract-drawing-wins-2021-Parkin-Drawing-Prize
