Marius Bercea

Morning at the Window

May 15 - June 28, 2025

Morning at the Window, 2023

Oil on canvas

27.5 x 23.75 inches

70 x 60 cm

P.O.R.

Marius Bercea's visually striking oil paintings explore the complex relationship, in the years since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Romanian Revolution, between Eastern Europe and the West. Bercea, is one of the leading figures of the ‘Cluj School’ of artists, along with Adrian Ghenie and Victor Man, who studied painting in the city between the 1990s and 2000s. Bercea focuses his portraiture on a generation of young Romanians, specifically those born around 1989, reflecting their uniquely mixed sense of historical memory and their collaged experience of liberal democracy and the free market.

Bercea’s Morning at the Window harbors melancholic undertones in its depiction of the banalities and uncertainties of life. In his world reality and fiction, growth and decay, personal history and public history collide in fragmented scenes, in which lush landscapes, imposing architecture, and elusive figures coexist in a precarious balance. 

Marius Bercea (b. 1979) lives and works in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He received his BA and MA at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Select solo exhibitions include: Art Encounters Foundation, Timișoara, Romania (2024); Lyles & King, New York (2024); François Ghebaly, New York (2022) MAKI, Tokyo (2021); François Ghebaly, Los Angeles (2020); Blain|Southern, Berlin, Germany (2018); Cluj Museum of Art, Romania (2017) and Blain|Southern, London (2014). His recent group exhibitions include: Matt Carey Williams, London (2024); Kunsthalle Prague, Czech Republic (2023); Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke (2023); WHAT MUSEUM, Tokyo (2022); Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark (2021) and Muzeul de Artă Recentă, Bucharest, Romania (2021). Bercea's work can be found in the following public collections: ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark; Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway; MAKI Collection, Tokyo; Olbricht Collection, Berlin; Oketa Collection, Tokyo; Space K Museum, Seoul; Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia and Zabludowicz Collection, London.