BIOGRAPHY
Mark is a Kiwi-Fijian artist born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand.
Mark’s art is inspired by observing the ordinary everyday people and scenes of his environment. Hoping to capture their stories and characters, finding the beauty of every day life. Mark's style is a playful blend of realism and abstraction. His focus currently has been on the urban environment of Auckland City life.​ As well as being a practicing artist, Mark has a passion for teaching art and helping others grow with their skills. He teaches Drawing and Storytelling at AUT and has been teaching portrait and figure drawing at Studio One since 2022.
Mark studied at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design from 2013 - 2015, he then studied online through American based school Watts Atelier of the Arts for another 3 years.​Mark is part of the growing Life Drawing and Urban Sketching communities in Auckland and has been taking part in Life Drawing since 2014.
In 2019 Mark was selected as a finalist in the 2020 Adam Portraiture Awards and 2019 Kumeu Art Awards. His portrait 'Lion Man' was selected to go on the Adam Portraiture Awards national tour.
In 2022, he made his solo exhibition debut at Studio One Toi Tu titled "Auckland Under Construction". Where he also began teaching portrait classes.​Some of Marks artistic influences are Steve Huston, Jeffery Watts, Will Yu, Zhaoming Wu, Richard Schmid, Edward Hopper and Van Gough.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions:
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2024: Kingdom Come (with Freddy Fairclough)
I had the fun of collaborating with my good friend Freddy once again on our show Kingdom Come at Studio One Toi Tu. The theme was a tribute to Karangahape Road with an edgy heaven and hell underlying theme to it.
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2023: Cyber Isolation
Part of the prize for the Emerging artist award at Lakehouse Art Centre's Merit Awards was getting to do a solo exhibition there. It continued from my city life paintings, the opening was a lot of fun bringing all my friends along.
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2021: "Auckland Under Construction"
My first solo exhibition. This was a show I had been working towards for quite some time. As I was getting started in oil painting, I painted a lot of construction scenes and workers around Auckland. Based on my own experience working in the industry during Auckland's construction boom.
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2019 Life Drawing (with Orion Mabelle)
A show done with my friend Orion who used to organise the life drawing sessions in Auckland CBD. It was done as a goodbye show before he left for overseas.
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Group and Award shows:
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2024 Kumeu Art Awards
My painting "Teddy Bears Picnic" was selected as a finalist
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2022 Waitakere Art Awards
My painting "Rock Star" was selected as won the prize for "Looking West" Category.
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2022 Lake House Merit Awards
I was awarded with the Emerging Artist award for my painting "Burger Geek".
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2021 Rhythm and Lines
A life drawing show done with the great life drawing community in Auckland.
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2020 Adam Portraiture Awards Tour
My painting "Lion Man" was selected to go on the national tour.
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2020 Adam Portraiture Awards
My painting "Lion Man" was selected as a finalist
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2019 Pocket Edition: Small Works for Large Walls
I was invited to take part in North Arts group show alongside many other great NZ artists. The concept was for small pocket sized works.
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2019 Kumeu Art Awards
My painting "Coloured" was selected as a finalist
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2018 The Drawing Show
I was invited by North Art to take part in their show for drawing. We were given large scale paper and given an open brief to do anything that was related to drawing.
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2017 Cuban Relief Show
I was invited to take part in a group show to raise funds for Cuba after they were struck by a hurricane.
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2017 Pocket Edition: Small works for large walls
My first time being invited to a group show at North Art. It was a honour to have work showing alongside some well known NZ artists.
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Awards
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2024 Kumeu Art Awards
tba
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2022 Waitakere Arts Awards
Winner for "Looking West" category for my "Rock Star" painting
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2022 Lakehouse Merit Awards:
Winner for "Emerging Artist" for my painting "Burger Geek"
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2020 Adam Portraiture Awards
Finalist. My work "Lion Man" was chosen to go on the national tour
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2019 Kumeu Art Awards
My work "Coloured" was a chosen finalist
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2024 KINGDOM COME
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
My second exhibition done at Studio One Toi Tu with fellow artist Freddy Fairclough. Dedicated to Karangahape Road.
2022 WAITAKERE ART AWARDS
My first time taking part at the Waitakere Art Awards where I won the prize for the category of "Looking West".
2022 LAKEHOUSE MERIT AWARDS
My paintings "Burger Geek" and "Road Worker" were awarded "Emerging Artist" award
RHYTHM AND LINES
Group exhibition with the Life Drawing group "Drink n Draw" at Studio One
Debut solo show at Studio One in Ponsonby Auckland
My portrait "Lion Man" for the Adam Portraiture Awards was selected to tour at Wallace Art Centre, Pah Homestead, Auckland and Millenium Gallery in Blenheim.
My portrait "Lion Man" was selected as a finalist in the 2020 Adam Portraiture Awards held at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Wellington.
Group show I was invited to take part in for the second time, held at North Art in Northcote, North Shore.
2019 KUMEU ART AWARDS
My gouache painting "Coloured" was selected as a finalist in the Kumeu Art Awards.
Group show with friend Orion Mabelle, showing some of our life drawings in Auckland. It was a kind of farewell show as Orion was leaving the country.
Group show I was invited to take part in for Northart's annual Drawing Show.
I was invited to take part in the Cuban Relief show, a group show organized by Malcom McAlister. It was to raise money for victims of the Hurricane in Cuba at the time.
My first time being invited to take part in a group show at Northart. I used this as an opportunity to test ideas for what would later become my debut solo show Auckland Under Construction.
EDUCATION
January 2016 - June 2019
WATTS ATELIER OF THE ARTS
After leaving Whitecliffe, I chose to study with Watts Atelier's online school to focus more on my drawing skills. The school made a world of difference to my drawing ability, art influences and work ethic.
July 2013 - December 2015
WHITECLIFFE COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
In 2013 I took the risk of leaving my job to begin my formal art training by enrolling in Whitecliffe's foundation course in 2013. I would continue studying there, majoring in Fine Art from 2014 to 2015. It was an eye opening experience and helped me to develop as an artist and a person. Many of my art concepts that I'm still working on were first developed in my time here.
AWARDS
2022 WAITAKERE ART AWARDS
Winner for category of "Looking West" for my "Rock Star" painting.
2022 LAKEHOUSE MERIT AWARDS
Winner for "Emerging Artist" award for two paintings "Burger Geek" and "Road Worker"
2020 ADAM PORTRAITURE AWARDS
I was a chosen finalist in the Adam Portraiture Awards for my painting "Lion Man". Interestingly the awards took place during New Zealands first national lock down in 2020. My painting Lion Man was also selected to be on the national tour.
2019 KUMEU ART AWARDS
My painting Coloured was selected as a finalist.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Studio One - Toi Tu
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"Portrait Drawing 101"
2022 - present
Teaching the fundamental elements of portrait drawing to students of all ages and skill levels.
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"Life Drawing 101"
2023 - present
Teaching the fundamentals of Life Drawing and constructing the figure with forms, shapes, anatomy to students of all ages and skill levels.
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AUT (Auckland University of Technology)
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"Animated Drawing"
2023 - present
Teaching life drawing as a TA alongside Hossein Najafi for the Animated Drawing paper at AUT (Auckland University of Technology). Teaching mostly young animation and VFX students from the basics of figure construction to more advanced anatomy.
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Lake House Arts Centre
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"Saturday Sketch Club" Figure Drawing
2023 - present
Teaching casual life drawing sessions to participants who are mostly beginners.
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"Portrait Drawing 101"
2023
Teaching portrait drawing fundamentals to students of all ages and skill levels
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