Using a special Painlevé-B(a)cklund transformation as well as the extended mapping approach and the linear superposition theorem, we obtain new families of variable separation solutions to the (2+1)-dimensional generalized Broer-Kaup (GBK) system. Based on the derived exact solution, we reveal some novel evolutional behaviors of localized excitations, i.e. fission and fusion phenomena in the (2+ 1)-dimensional GBK system.