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Reflecting on the winning artwork, Dr Sarah Farrar, the judge for this year’s prize said:
“As I walked around the Academy of Fine Art’s Queens Wharf galleries to view the 80 finalists in this year’s Parkin Drawing Prize, Mark Braunias’ work, ‘In Search of the Saccharine Underground’, kept pulling me into its orbit. Its raucous energy is irrepressible and hard to ignore.
Viewing the work, I felt transported into the artist’s studio where the ink and acrylic paint had only just been applied to the paper. In contrast to the exquisite, finely-wrought surfaces of some of the other finalists’ works, Braunias’ work is fresh, spirited and uncontainable. The artist’s seemingly spontaneous and intuitive mark-making is audacious, comic, and compelling.
The sign of a good artwork is that it continues to intrigue and delight over multiple viewings. I remain fascinated, slightly puzzled and powerfully drawn to Mark’s work.”
Mark, who was also a finalist for the Parkin Drawing Prize in 2018, is blown away with the award.
“I certainly wasn’t expecting to win so I am feeling quite overwhelmed. The great thing about the Parkin is it allows you to draw a range of genres and styles.
‘In Search of the Saccharine Underground’ is related to the work I have been doing over the past 20 years and is very much a halfway point between drawing and painting. I wanted to put this into a more overt context about what is going on behind the work – taking the cute and giving it a formal modernist edge. It’s not just about doing cartoons and something funny but there is a seriousness behind the work.”
To view the full press release on the Parkin Drawing Prize website - please click here.
Dr Sarah Farrar also awarded 10 highly commended prizes worth $500 each. The recipients include:
- Martin Ball for Remnant VII (Auckland)
- Gareth Barlow for The Resurrection of Kahungunu (Sydney)
- Anton Chapman for Escalation (Moraine and Mountain) (Auckland)
- Belinda Griffiths for Emerge (Auckland)
- Weilun Ha for Hydra (Auckland)
- Colin Luxton for Jar (Te Aroha)
- Sue Pearce for Your Perfect Face 2 (Dunedin)
- Connah Podmore for Light Held Light (Wellington)
- Fleur Stevenson for A Journey’s Drawing (Sydney)
- Marion Wassenaar for Carbon Shroud (Dunedin)
This years exhibition was curated by Matt Gauldie.
The Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition season runs until 29 August at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Academy Galleries, Queens Wharf, Wellington.
All the artworks will be for sale giving admirers and collectors the opportunity to purchase some wonderful pieces.
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