Born in 1979 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Marius Bercea received both his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in 2003 and 2005, respectively. He is known for large-scale paintings that are at once brightly colored albeit with dark undertones, depicting the banalities and uncertainties of life in early-capitalist Romania, after the fall of Communism. Deeply personal in nature, his works are often set against both decorative and decrepit landscapes where figures collect in scenes of intimacy amounting to surreal, monumental paintings. Alongside Adrian Ghenie and Victor Man, Marius Bercea is regarded as one of the leading artists of the Cluj school, a group of painters who coalesced in Cluj-Napoca after the 1989 Romanian Revolution. Drawing from his own archive of memory and from his direct surroundings, imagery is fragmented, collaged and amalgamated offering an inside look into Bercea's expansive world which holds past, present, and future, finely wavering between reality and imagination.
Read MoreBercea's recent solo exhibitions include The Far Sound of Cities, MAKI Gallery (Tokyo, 2021) Thieves of Time, François Ghebaly (Los Angeles, 2020); Time Can Space, Blain|Southern (Berlin, 2018); A Full Rotation of the Moon, Cluj Museum of Art (Cluj-Napoca, 2017); (On) Relatively Calm Disputes, François Ghebaly (Los Angeles, 2016); Hypernova, Blain|Southern (London, 2014); Concrete Gardens, François Ghebaly (Los Angeles, 2012); and Remains of Tomorrow, Blain|Southern (London, 2011). His work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Travel Guide, IOMO Gallery (Bucharest, 2021), L.A. : Views, MAKI Gallery (Tokyo, 2020); Bad Peach, François Ghebaly (Los Angeles, 2019); La Brique, The Brick, Cărămida, La Kunsthalle Centre D'art Contemporain (Mulhouse, 2019); Young Collectors 2, Elgiz Museum (Istanbul, 2015); Defaced, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Boulder, 2014); Hotspot Cluj – New Romanian Art, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art (Skovvej, 2014); No New Thing Under the Sun, Royal Academy (London, 2010); and the 4th Prague Biennale (Prague, 2009). His works are in many notable public and private collections, including the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (Peekskill), ARKEN Museum of Modern Art (Skovvej), Taubman Museum of Art (Roanoke), Kistefos Museum (Jevnaker), Zabludowicz Collection (London), Olbricht Collection (Berlin), Space K Museum (Seoul).
Text courtesy MAKI.
