Marius Bercea
Born in 1979 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Marius Bercea received both his B.A. in 2003 and M.A. in 2005 at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Marius Bercea is widely recognized as one of the leading figures of the Cluj School of Painting—a loosely affiliated group of artists who emerged in Cluj-Napoca after the 1989 Romanian Revolution. Known for his vividly layered, psychologically charged works, Bercea blends personal memory, cultural history, and imagined geographies into a visual language that is both intimate and expansive.
Over the past two decades, Bercea’s paintings have explored the social and emotional landscapes shaped by consumerism, capitalism, and migration. His richly textured compositions oscillate between realism and fiction, glamour and decay, utopia and collapse. At the core of his practice lies a fascination with the thresholds—where past and present, East and West, private and collective experience intersect.
Often described as “Transylfornian,” Bercea’s visual universe fuses the terrains of his native Transylvania with those of California’s West Coast. This hybrid space—equal parts archive and dreamscape—forms the backdrop for scenes populated by elusive figures, opulent interiors, and architectural remnants. The result is a body of work that meditates on transformation and dislocation, while remaining deeply rooted in autobiography.
Recent solo exhibitions include This Side of Paradise, Art Encounters Foundation (Timișoara, 2024); Echo of a Breaking String, Lyles & King (New York, 2024); Blue Silk, François Ghebaly (New York, 2022); and The Far Sound of Cities, MAKI Gallery (Tokyo, 2021). His works are held in numerous public and private collections, including the ARKEN Museum of Modern Art (Denmark), the Taubman Museum of Art (USA), the Kistefos Museum (Norway), the Zabludowicz Collection (UK), and the Olbricht Collection (Germany).
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New Tenant, Sunshine Noir, 2025
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New Tenant, Sunshine Noir exhibition poster, 2025
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Personified Tonic Monday, 2025
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“As I walked out one Evening” after a poem of W. H. Auden, 2025
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Grand Beach Hotel, 2024
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Untitled, 2024
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Untitled, 2024
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Untitled (Bertoia and Poussin), 2024
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Study for Troubadours of Uncertain Future, 2023
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Untitled, 2023
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Untitled, 2023
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Untitled (Shining Spotlight Stories; Sun Tang Mustang, Riviera of Restless Shininh), 2023
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Yucca, 2022-2025
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Aleea Azuga, 2019-2022
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Pack up the Modern Sun , 2019
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Untitled, 2017
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Untitled
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Marius Bercea in dialogue with Monocle Radio
Summer art special: Gilbert & George, Australia’s Aboriginal art centres and Romanian painter Marius BerceaRobert Bound, Monocle Radio, August 4, 2025 -
Jecza Gallery debutează în București, la Scânteia+, alături de Marius Bercea, cu expoziţia personală „New Tenant | Sunshine Noir”.
Eugen Cojocariu,, RRI, May 19, 2025 -
Marius Bercea, cea mai mare expozitie personala din ultimele doua decenii la Bucuresti. Conceptul este inspirat de „Noul locatar” de Eugen Ionescu.
Urban, May 14, 2025 -
New Tenant | Sunshine Noir // Marius Bercea
Propagarta, May 14, 2025 -
Jecza Gallery debutează în București, la Scânteia+
Liana Ion, Curatorial, May 13, 2025 -
In Conversation: Andrei Jecza
Codin Orășeanu, Black Rhino Radio, May 13, 2025