Mark Cross Painting - New Zealand Artist
Having achieved this he returned to New Zealand in 1982 in order to find a market for his work and since then he has developed a reputation as one of the South Pacific’s leading realist Artists.
Cross now divides his time between studios in Niue and New Zealand and although the work is very specific in it’s detail, reference to these countries is restricted to the use of local elements for the creation of a timeless, lateral world where his figures act out and question the foibles of humanity but never try to proffer answers.
The linear perspective of history has been replaced by a cyclical understanding of time, an understanding that the Artist has achieved by his closeness to nature while in Niue. Cross’s figures are totally integrated with the landscape and there’s never a feeling that nature is dominated by human kind. This is the basis of a complex philosophy that the Artist transfers into his images and in their ethereal, visionary way the works warn of the dire ecological imperatives that face both a small island and a planet.
Mark Cross has achieved through his work a uniqueness that avoids the trappings of regionalism, so often associated with realism, and replaces them with an acutely perceptive worldview. During the nineties however the artist has ventured into other areas of art production with the establishment of a sculpture park in the rain forest in the east of Niue. A collaboration with his wife and several other artists, crafts people and musicians saw the creation of the Shrine to Abundance, an installation inside a shipping container that toured Australia, New Zealand and went to Rarotonga more recently. His paintings however are his main focus and are to be found in many private and corporate collections in Australasia, America and Europe.
Solo Exhibitions
2012 “Works in Transit”. Pierre Peeters Gallery, Auckland
2005 Sheep Country. Real Gallery Auckland
2004 Heta: Power and Fragility. Photographs SOCA gallery Auckland
Heta: Power and Fragility. Photographs Whangarei Art Museum
Wide Island. Paintings of Central Otago. Milford Gallery, Dunedin
2003 Recent Works: John Leech Gallery Auckland
2002 “Have We Offended” Te Manawa, Museum and Art Gallery
2002 Cook islands National Museum, Cook Is
1998- Haleiwa Gallery, Hawaii
1997 Woodcuts, John Leech Gallery, Auckland
1996 Premier Gallery, Hawaii
1995 “Life Stills” John Leech Gallery, Auckland
1994 Canterbury Society of Arts, Christchurch
XPO Exhibitions/John Leech Gallery, Auckland
1993 “Anomalies”, John Leech Gallery, Auckland
1991 John Leech Gallery, Auckland
1989 Auckland Society of Arts, Auckland
North Gallery, Whangarei
Baycourt Cultural Centre, Tauranga
1988 Canterbury Society of Arts, Christchurch
Huanaki Cultural Centre, Niue
1987 QEII Arts Council Funded touring exhibition
NSA Whangarei
ASA Auckland
WSA Hamilton
1985 Molesworth Gallery Wellington
Group Exhibitions
2010- Connect Gallery, Wil, Switzerland
2010 – Minima Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
2005 Invitation Lightbox Exhibition: (Foreshore Archive) SOCA Gallery
Invitational Screen Exhibition: (Six Days and the Pacific) SOCA
2003 “Exiles in Paradise”, With Mahiriki Tangaroa, Beachcomber Gallery, Rarotonga
2002 Tulana Mahu Installation, Cook Island National Museum
2001 Tulana Mahu Installation, Manawatu Museum and Art Gallery, NZ
2000 Tulana Mahu Installation,Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, Australia
1999-2000 Tulana Mahu Installation, Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia
1996 “Nukututaha: Art From Niue; The Lane Gallery Auckland
1996 “Landscapes” Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
1995 Drawings; Joint exhibition with John Pule, The Lane Gallery, Auckland
1993-1994 “Real Vision”; Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Chrischurch
1993 “Portray Portrait”; Morgan le Fay Gallery, Auckland
1992 Joint exhibition/book launch; Blue Angle Gallery Auckland
1990 “NZ Realists” Charlotte H Galleries, Auckland
1989 NZ Artists; Mezzanine Gallery, Brisbane
1986 Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland
ASA Gallery, Auckland
1984 Molesworth Gallery, Wellington
Awards and Grants
2014 Highly Commended in the Adam Portrait Prize, NZ Portrait Gallery
2006 Winner of the Auckland section of the traveling “Coexistence”
exhibition originated in Jerusalem
1991 Merit Award, Birkenhead Trust Art Award
1990 Winner of the Central King Country Visual Arts Trust Award
1989 Winner of the Waitakere Licensing Trust Art Award
1987 QEII Arts Council, New Artist Promotion Scheme
Winner of the Bledisloe Medal for Landscape
1985 Finalist, Team MacMillan Ford Art Award
1984 Finalist, Team MacMillan Ford Art Award
1983 Winner of the Polynesian Airlines Short Story Award
Publications (written by artist)
2002 Introduction to Mark Cross “Have We Offended”
2000 “The Hyper-Decentralisation and Dissolving of Art Frameworks”,
Australia Pacific History Conference Online Contribution. National Museum
of Australia.
1999 “Tahiono Art Collective; The Paradox of Isolation”, Australia Art Monthly
1993 “Liku and the New Hiapo of John Pule”, Art New Zealand Magazine
1983 “Time on this Island, Tusitala Magazine
Collections
Public:
Waitakere Licencing Trust
Auckland University
Gallery on the Seam, Jerusulem
Corporate:
Fletcher Challenge, NZ
Glaxo, NZ
Skellerup Group, NZ
Reef Group, NZ
Private:
Various collections in; NZ, Australia,USA, Panama, Canada, Japan, Britian, Switzerland,
India, Lebanon
Special Projects
2012 Video collaboration with Darryn Harkness (Auckland) “Float”
2010 Video collaboration with Set Fire to Flames (Montreal) “Language of Moths”
2006-7 Private sector representative on the Niue Tax Reform Steering Committee
2005-6 Activism against the clear-felling of the Niue rain forest
2002 Artist in Residence with the British Consul to the Cook Islands
2000 Email input to the Pacific History Association’s Conference, “Bursting Boundaries”
at the Australian National University, Canberra
1999-2003 Organised, Curated and participated in the “Tulana Mahu” (Shrine to Abundance)
installation in Niue and shipped to Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland, Palmerston North
and the Cook Islands
1997 – Established the Hikulagi Sculpture Park with Funding from the ASPCF.
Helped construct first sculpture “Odesyk” by Mikoyan Vekula at Hikulagi
Began construction on “Protean Habitat” an ongoing project at Hikulagi
Established, coordinated and participated in “Hiapo Foou” a tapa cloth revival
project under taken by Kolene Cross and funded by the NZ High Commission to
Niue.
1996 Established the Tahiono Arts Collective, Niue Island
Opened Gallery and Cooperative Sculpture workshop