Articles:
T. J. McNamara - NZ Herald 28 July 2004
Art News New Zealand - Winter 2004
Southern Cross Magazine - London January 2000
Australian Print Council quarterly magazine 'Imprint' - June 08
Australian Print Council quarterly magazine 'Imprint' - June 08
Wharepuke Print Studio and Gallery
Kerikeri, Northland New Zealand
Set within the two-hectare award-winning Wharepuke Subtropical Garden in Kerikeri in the north of New Zealand, The Wharepuke Print Studio is a new non toxic printmaking workshop and gallery offering courses, workshops and exhibitions.
Run by artist/printmaker Mark Graver and two years in the making, the studio officially opened in March with an exhibition of Mark's work and the launch of a recently published booklet- Mark Graver - Paintings and Prints.
Mark is a professional artist/printmaker who exhibits widely in NZ and internationally. His work is held in many public and private collections throughout Europe, USA, Japan, Australia and NZ. He came to New Zealand from the UK in 2003, moving onto land that has been in partner Tania Booth's family since 1938. Mark met Tania in the UK and travelled back to NZ twice, arranging shows and organising dealers before making the permanent move from East London. These intercontinental shifts are reflected in his subject matter as well as the material content of Mark's paintings and prints:
"My work tends to be about place — memory of place, time, history etc, with paintings made using local earth and clay. So being in NZ must affect the look of the work as it's literally made with the place I'm in. Conceptually it's much the same as it was in the UK though there are more autobiographical elements coming through now that I've settled somewhere and have time to reflect on where I come from. A recent recurring image is connected to being a "Ten Pound Pom". My family immigrated to Sydney in 1969 and lived in Sans Souci for a while but returned to England on The Fairstar liner. I recently found a key ring from The Fairstar in a Kerikeri op-shop and an abstracted image of the boat has appeared in a n
umber of prints. It's a connection to history, journeying and coincidence."
Mark trained at Leeds Polytechnic (BA Hons Fine Art 1985-88
) and then at Camberwell College of Arts, London (MA Printmaking 1995-96), where all the printmaking was done using traditional techniques and materials. He says:
"I became aware of Keith Howard's work in the safer printmaking field when I worked at Intaglio Printmaker, a specialist printmaking supplies shop in London, and later came to realise that traditional printmaking techniques expose the artist and the environment to a multitude of toxic materials. The safer printmaking promoted with the "non toxic printmaking" approach allows for all the traditional techniques to be replicated with less harmful, but equally effective, environmentally friendly methods.1
Since settling in New Zealand I have been researching and re-training myself in the new non toxic processes and now have a studio from which to spread these techniques.
The studio set-up is based on the work of Keith Howard, Henrik Boegh, founder of the Grafisk Exsperimentarium in Copenhagen and author of The Handbook of Non Toxic Intaglio, and research carried out by Friedhard Kiekenben, who invented the "Edinburgh Etch" in 1997 at Edinburgh Printmakers.
Printmaking is a very inclusive activity and already links with other printmakers and studios from around the world are in place — since launching the website I've had people contacting me from Australia, Canada, UK, Singapore and Bangladesh as well as from NZ, and my hope now is that the studio can become a resource that is local, national and international, fostering links through exchanges, exhibitions and collaborations. We hope to able to offer residencies in the future but that, as with everything else, comes down to funding. We are though arranging, with the help of Susan Fieldes in Auckland, for Dan Welden (USA), author of Printmaking in the Sun, to come and run a Solarplate workshop here in December."
Believed to be unique in New Zealand in its complete dedication to safer printmaking techniques, the studio offers courses in a variety of non toxic techniques with the emphasis on acrylic resist etching. Courses are open to all levels of experience from the first time printmaker to the professional artist and are run as both short (day/weekends) and longer residential courses. According to Mark, Wharepuke Print Studio is well placed to respond to demand:
"'As we have everything on site we are able to be flexible with course times and content. We have already had students from the UK and the USA working here. A group of 3-6 wanting to arrange a course can stay at Wharepuke Subtropical Accommodation (one bedroom, self-contained Eco cottages set within the garden) and arrange their workshop times and activities to suit — we might even fire up the wood-fired pizza oven for them! And there's plenty to do for any non printmaking travelling companions." •
T.J.McNamara - NZ Herald 28 July 2004
"New Paintings by Mark Graver, Oedipus Rex Gallery. khartoum Place: these abstract works are remarkable for thier colours largey derived not from paint tubes, but made by the artist from natural materials. The textured surfaces convey a soft moodiness. The two biggest paintings convincingly break the uniformity of the work - one is cloudy and atmospheric, the other repeats simple forms in rank on rank, to good effect."
Art News New Zealand - Winter 2004
The English Painter
English painter and Printmaker, Mark Graver, who recently relocated to Northlands, says his work is about “memory, place and time. It’s an attempt to place myself in the world”.
Through his works on canvas his approach is anything but traditional.
“I make my own paint from pigments, natural earths and clays dug from the ground and acrylic binders as well as plaster, concrete, whiting and found natural objects – plant material, ashes, anything that resonates scene of place. Layers are built up and varnished, scratched away and added to. I’m interested in creating a history of the piece like a palimpsest – a manuscript written and re-written. The works are painter flat using trawls, spatulas, brushes and then I scratch into them with nails or sticks or sand then down with an orbital sander.”
His partner Tania Booth also uses clays from the Kerikeri area and Graver began using the same clay on his first visit to New Zealand about five years ago. As well as chalk from England and red ochre from Australia-he has used plaster and concrete to evoke a sense of the urban environment.
All the works are painted on canvas using a square format. “I want to avoid them being landscapes-shaped while still being about the land.” His working method evolved through circumstances. “I began using acrylics for purely practical reasons. I had a studio in my flat in London and living with oil paint fumes and solvents wasn’t nice!” The natural materials evolved from my use of pigments. After all, many traditional artist’s colours –like amber and ochre – are made from earth so it was a natural progression.”
Graver’s first shows in New Zealand were at Devonport’s Flagstaff Gallery and at CoCA three years ago now he is looking forward to his Oedipus Rex exhibition in July.
Southern Cross Magazine - London - January 2000
A Life's Work
The British visitor to New Zealand typically returns from holiday brimming with tales of high adventure, brandishing rope burns from bungee jumps and boasting bags full of mementoes of the Maori culture. Exciting stuff for the traveller himself yet less entertaining to those sentenced to a winter on this cold island.
The British artist, Marc Graver, has however managed to convey his experiences of New Zealand in a way that others are more likely to appreciate.
Graver left for Thailand, Australia and New Zealand in October ’98, viewing his travels as nothing more than “an opportunity to see more of the world.”
Yet, on arrival in New Zealand, he found it impossible not to be moved by the landscape and beauty.
Such was his response to the sense of quiet, space and light and to having the ability to breathe again, that he felt compelled to transfer his impressions to canvas.
His belief is that “you are always thinking about your work … it is not detached from everyday life” and so his sojourn has produced a body of work integrally tied up with his experiences there.
Those expecting perfect representations of the scenic sites will find that his agenda is entirely different.
Graver is most concerned with evoking memories, feelings and experiences through colour and texture, rather than depicting the specific. He is intent on capturing the spirit of the place and reveals that the materials employed are significant to the content of the work.
In fact he points out that his paintings are literally “made with the place” by using earth and pigments from the surrounding areas.
These natural powder pigments are then bound with an acrylic to make them permanent. This emphasis on the sense of place stems from a concern for the physical environment and its effect on the individual.
He perceives that in effect he was “living there, rather than visiting” and has been lent a unique perspective as a result.
He was able to stay with his partner’s family and to benefit from an insider’s knowledge, allowing him to experience much more than the average tourist.
Taking short trips around the country he worked on location with loose canvasses.
Considering how intricately linked his subject matter is with his immediate and personal response, it is surprising to learn that all works, except for one, were completed once he was already back in the UK.
Graver says he took some 300 photographs to serve merely as memory aids, but that he relied more on the sketches, shapes and colours made on the spot “to remind myself what I felt.”
He is moving away from this method and now writes things down as reference, commenting “my work has developed to a stage where I know what I am doing.”
Indeed he has come a long way since the days when he left school and was unsure about what he wanted to do.
He tried his hand at writing, composing songs and playing in a band, but confesses he was “no good”. Clearly he was veering toward the arts, but had not yet found the right creative outlet. Graver says he fell into art “almost accidentally” when a friend of the family involved with a foundation art course suggested that he submit his work.
Although the course had already begun he was enrolled immediately and here he found the direction he had lacked before.
He completed his BA in Fine Art, did a stint in a punk band in Edinburgh, then after six years went on to do an MA in printmaking at Camberwell College of Art.
Prints remain his favourite medium, but a lack of access to facilities has restricted him from working with them more extensively.
He leans toward printmaking because it is, as he describes “more urban and physical.” With his graphic mark making he intends to suggest a figurative presence and to suggest ideas of the written.
These devices appear well suited to his subject matter and Graver comments, “it is the surfaces around the city, the cracks in the pavements, graffiti and the river that inspire me.”
He also reveals a fascination with the history of the place and “the people who have lived here and how they have developed.”
In this regard, the influence of three particular artists becomes evident. He cites as his influences Cy Thombly, an American artist known for his scribbles and lines and a style that has an underlying theme based on classical history.
Other admired figures included are the German painter Keiffer and the Spaniard Tapies who share similar concerns for place and history.
Most pertinent to Graver in the handling of these themes, “is how to be nationalist, without evoking war.”
His own work aims to explore the idea of place with a more universal and historical connection. Focusing on his working methods, he explains that “being an artist is an 24 hour job — you need to assimilate all experiences and sights and feelings, then it is a matter of them coming out again in a two-dimensional way.”
His studio is in his apartment requiring him to be disciplined in his work routine.
“Contrary to what people like to think”, says Graver, “it is not a romantic occupation.” He believes “it is necessary to paint constantly because the work evolves everyday.
You have to be very conscious of what is going on and assess whether it works or not, while learning through experience and tradition. “You have to be your own harshest critic.” Evidently he is well received. In London he is represented by the Zella Gallery and has exhibited a number of times in London at Northbank Gallery, Morely Gallery, Mall Galleries and the 369 Gallery in Edinburgh amongst others.
Unfortunately, critical acclaim does not always ensure huge financial rewards and Graver channels his energy into giving master classes in printmaking.
While he enjoys the aspect of teaching, he concedes, “ideally I would like to be able to make a living from my work.”
While in New Zealand he had the opportunity to investigate the art scene and views it as being “different, in that they are so tied to their country and the place and have a strong sense of Mario politics and heritage.”
Graver is fairly keen to emigrate one day, but is quick to add: “I am not sure they will have me!”
In the meantime he is always planning more trips and believes it is important to travel. He has an aversion to the self-centred attitude that some of the British display and stresses, “I have always been very aware of there being other places.”
It is sometimes difficult to travel for practical concerns like leaving the flat, but he believes, “these can be excuses, if you want to do it enough, you can.”
Destinations at the top of his list are New Zealand, South America, and Poland, where the oldest forests in the world exist. Of his time spent in New Zealand Graver comments “my experience has not changed me, but added more.”
While Graver does not linger long over the details, he presents a portrait of such depth and scope and feeling, that it is impossible to ignore the presence of the country that has inspired him.
Graver exhibits at New Zealand House, Haymarket, London, until February 21.
Courtesy Southern Cross Magazine - London - January 2000
