McLeavey Gallery

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The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Mark Braunias, Veronika Djoulai, John Reynolds & Brenda Ronowicz
20 Nov – 23 Dec 2020
Golden Loon; Lounge Muse
Mark Braunias & Brenda Ronowicz, 2020
Quilted fabric
Twenty Twenty
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic marker pen on canvas, 215 x 450cm
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Veronika Djoulai & John Reynolds
Installation
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
John Reynolds
Installation

About the exhibition

Our final exhibition of 2020 brings together new work by three McLeavey Gallery artists—Mark Braunias, Veronika Djoulai & John Reynolds.

Named after Milan Kundera’s 1984 novel, the exhibition speaks to the duality of experience. Spanning painting, textile and mixed media, the works are both playful and serious. Urgent and timeless. Whimsical and weighty.

Mark Braunias continues his collaboration with quilt maker Brenda Ronowicz who he began working with after he encountered her handiwork at a local town-hall exhibition in Kawhia. Working closely together on material choice and composition, the pair translate Mark’s signature biomorphic forms into quilts—lifting them off the surface of the wall and imbuing them with an object-like quality.

Veronika Djoulai continues her interest in history and absurd politics with two art historically inspired works. An elegant acrylic painting with echoes of Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People and a mixed media work inspired by Felix Valloton's painting Verdun. Similar to Vallonton’s painting, which depicted the horrors of WWI and poked fun at the fashionable Cubist movement of the time, Veronika’s mixed-media work tries to make sense of a reality star president, a global pandemic and a climate emergency by combining high and low cultural references to hint at the severity and ridiculousness of the present moment.

John Reynolds continues to harness the power of text to communicate complicated human experiences. Inscribed with a line from Greta Thunberg’s 2019 Davos speech, in which she told global leaders, “I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear that I do everyday. And then I want you to act” his triptych and accompanying works on paper and small canvases deftly capture the current global zeitgeist with humour and sensitivity.

Lounge Muse
Mark Braunias & Brenda Ronowicz, 2020
Quilted fabric, 84.5 x 61.5cm
Golden Loon
Mark Braunias, 2020
Quilted fabric, 84.5 x 61.5cm
Huh?
Veronika Djoulai, 2020
Acrylic on canvas, 37 x 27cm
If You Can’t Say Something Nice, Say Something Clever But Devastating
Veronika Djoulai, 2020
Mixed media on paper, 43 x 116cm
Empty Words & Green Wash
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
I Want You to Panic
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
I Want You to Panic
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
Plant Some Shit
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
My Drink Needs a Drink
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
Empty Words & Green Wash
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
I Want You to Panic
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
Major Eye Roll
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
Twenty Twenty
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
I Want You to Panic
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
I Want You to Panic
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
Fog and Birds
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
I Want You to Panic
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
From Zero to Crazy
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on paper, 31.5 x 24.5cm
I Want You to Panic
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on canvas, 10 x 10cm
I Want You to Panic
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on canvas, 10 x 10cm
I Want You to Panic
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on canvas, 10 x 10cm
Twenty Twenty
John Reynolds, 2020
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on canvas, 10 x 10cm
NZ Hell Hole
John Reynolds
Acrylic and metallic paint marker on canvas, 10 x 10cm

Artists

Veronika Djoulai

John Reynolds

More Exhibitions

Summer Show
7 artists
Always Have, Always Will
Veronika Djoulai, Milli Jannides & Christina Pataialii
Some Greater Plan
John Reynolds

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Olivia McLeavey

147 Cuba Street,
Wellington,
New Zealand
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PO Box 11052,
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Wellington 6011

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Saturday 11–4,
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