Marius Bercea
Encyclopedia
Life and work
Bercea was a BA student at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-NapocaCluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
, where he studied under Professor Ioan Sbarciu, graduating in 2003. He received his MA from the Art and Design University of Cluj-Napoca
Art and Design University of Cluj-Napoca
The Art and Design University is an art university located in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It was founded on November 15, 1925, as the Fine Arts School of Cluj.-Faculties:The University has 2 faculties:* Faculty of Graphic Arts...
in 2005, and has also taught at that institution for the past five years.
He is a founding member of Laika, an artists’ collective that coordinates studio and exhibition space within Cluj
Cluj
Cluj may refer to*Cluj-Napoca, county seat of Cluj County, named Cluj until 1974*Cluj County, Romania*Cluj-Napoca International Airport*U Cluj, a Romanian sports club*U Cluj, a Romanian football club*CFR Cluj, a Romanian football club...
’s Fabrica De Pensule (Paintbrush Factory), and in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
. Other artists associated with Laika include Serban Savu, Mircea Suciu and Vlad Olariu. Bercea is currently represented by BlainSouthern
BlainSouthern
Blain|Southern is a contemporary art gallery established in September 2010. The gallery is located at 21 Dering Street, and 6 Hill Street, London, W1....
in the UK and François Ghebaly in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Philosophy
At the age of 10, Bercea experienced the Romanian Revolution of 1989Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
and later the collapse of the USSR. His paintings can be seen as an amalgamation of memory, recollection and reality, commuincating to the viewer a personalised vision of post-communist, early-capitalist Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. Using what he describes as “an intensely personal archive” - family photographs, newspaper clippings, and tales from his family’s history - his paintings replicate the tonal impression of a Polaroid
Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...
and fabricate the sense of a fading past, sometimes focussing on the happiness of simple moments and childhood routines.
Golden ochre-tinged yellow tones pervades much of his work, a colour that derives from an image of Chernobyl
Chernobyl
Chernobyl or Chornobyl is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, in Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city had been the administrative centre of the Chernobyl Raion since 1932....
nuclear plant the painter has kept since childhood. The New York Times compared Bereca’s use of colour to that of Luc Tuymans
Luc Tuymans
Luc Tuymans is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated film, television, and print sources into examinations of history and memory.-Life:Tuymans...
paintings. Yet where Tuymans adopts muted overtones, Bercea’s use of colour is bolder and applied with force. Deep blue or sulphurous yellow skies sing when set against rich green rolling hills and the flecked grey of his concrete structures. Bercea’s disparate use of colour corresponds to the ‘swirling tangle of buckling roads, trees and buildings on the brink of collapse’ in Bercea's 2011 Truths with Multiple Masks, which generates ‘an unnerving sense of detritus and decay’.
Bogdan Iacob said of Bercea’s paintings:
Bercea's upcoming show, Remains of Tomorrow, to be held at BlainSouthern
BlainSouthern
Blain|Southern is a contemporary art gallery established in September 2010. The gallery is located at 21 Dering Street, and 6 Hill Street, London, W1....
in September 2011, will be curated by Jane Neal, a UK-based art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
, curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
and visual arts
Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
consultant. Neal, who frequently works with artists from the Cluj
Cluj
Cluj may refer to*Cluj-Napoca, county seat of Cluj County, named Cluj until 1974*Cluj County, Romania*Cluj-Napoca International Airport*U Cluj, a Romanian sports club*U Cluj, a Romanian football club*CFR Cluj, a Romanian football club...
School, wrote of the paradox of familiarity in Bercea's works:
Selected Solo Exhibitions
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- 2010 ‘Qui Vivra Verra’, François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
- 2009 ‘Time will Tell’, Chungking Project, Los Angeles, USA.
- 2009 ‘If Through the Copper Woods You Pass’, Eleven Fine Art Gallery, London, UK.
- 2008 ‘Shorn lambs fall behind’, Mie Lefever Gallery, Ghent, Belgium.
- 2008 ‘Yellow Side of Glamour/Melted Guidelines are passé’, Contemporary Gallery of Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, Romania.
Selected Group Exhibitions
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- 2011 ‘Palets’, Barbara Thumm Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
- 2011 ‘After the Fall’, Hudson Valley Centre for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York, USA.
- 2010 ‘No New Thing Under the Sun’, Royal Academy, London.
- 2010 ‘Mircea Pinte Collection’, Museum of Art, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
- 2009 ‘Close to Home’, Galleria Davide Di Maggio, Milan, Italy.
- 2009 ‘Invisible Body, Conspicuous Mind’, The Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Los Angeles.
- 2009 ‘Prague Biennale 4’, Prague.
- 2008 ‘Under Natural Circumstances’, MODEM, Museum of Contemporary Art, Debrecen, Hungary.
- 2008 ‘15 Hungarian and Romanian Painters’, Plan B Gallery, Cluj-Napoca.
- 2007 ‘PLUS 2’, Museum Kuppersmuhle fur Moderne Kunst, Duisburg, Germany.
- 2004 ‘Air-Bag’, National Art Museum, Cluj-Napoca.