Solo exhibition - new paintings and prints
Brad Novak
22 October to 22 November 2025
Preview: 19 October 4pm
Do we really know the icons we look up to? Leading NZ pop artist Brad Novak throws down that challenge via a star-studded cast in The Digital Dilemma. Novak lines up revered icons – from Sir Edmund Hillary to Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Darth Vader – in a series of new paintings and edgy screenprints; but there’s a catch.
We know them only through a digital lens, and that’s the dilemma Novak has been exploring – how technology and social media are disconnecting us from reality. And as a doctor specialising in public health advisory (when he’s not making art), it’s a subject he knows in depth.
Brad Novak (aka New Blood Pop) is an urban contemporary artist with work sitting sharply at the nexus between fine art and street art. His art practice covers two main themes. The first is the subjective nature of identity via his ‘Hybrid’ series: “We humans tend to both label and limit ourselves, and each other, by putting people into restrictive little boxes. I’ve rejected this through trying to balance two completely different careers.”
The second deals with what he calls ‘The Digital Dilemma’: “I believe those of us who can remember first-hand what it was like before ‘the internet’ have a duty to future generations – it’s increasingly hard for us to switch off. Many of my artworks continue to be a commentary, and warning, about the challenges with an ever-increasing technological age”.
Novak is the first artist in NZ’s history to exhibit with global pop and street art superstars such as Warhol, Haring, Brainwash and BANKSY (Toronto, 2015). After showing in Toronto, New York, San Franscico, London and Manchester, he recently held a solo show in Chicago with the coveted Vertical Gallery. Back in New Zealand, prominent senior artist Michael Smither chose Novak for his first ever 2-person portrait show. In 2024, Novak won the Eden Park Figurative award. He is also currently practicing (very much part-time) as a doctor, having specialised in Public Health Medicine.