Founded in 1995, MARUANI MERCIER represents 25 contemporary artists alongside its programme of museum quality historical exhibitions whilst continuing to build on the legacy of a number of renowned estates. Showing established artists alongside young and emerging new talent, the gallery promotes an artistic dialogue between different generations. It also contributes to new scholarship across its programmes by inviting prominent art historians and curators to collaborate on its exhibition catalogues and artist texts. Many of the gallery's artists participate in international exhibitions and are today placed in some of the most important museums and private collections around the world.
Initially MARUANI MERCIER's primary programme focused on celebrated American artists from the 1980s who, working within the medium of painting and sculpture, sought to reflect the aesthetic and social concerns of their time. Including; Ross Bleckner, Francesco Clemente, Ron Gorchov, Peter Halley, Jonathan Lasker, and Sue Williams.
Over the years, the gallery has looked to a new generation of artists who, working within different media, also address topical subjects relating to history, politics, the environment, and questions of identity and authorship. Amongst these, Radcliffe Bailey, Esiri Erheriene-Essi and Victor Ehikhamenor examine topics surrounding Black history and culture whilst Lyle Ashton Harris looks at societal constructs of sexuality and race. Jaclyn Conley's beautiful and nostalgic paintings present a poignant rumination on the social and political concerns of American life, whilst Tony Matelli confronts issues of isolation and impermanence with humour and irony. Kate Gottgens creates memory-laden paintings that recontextualize found imagery to explore the seductive tension between nostalgia, beauty, and unease, whereas Æmen Ededéen’s work blends mythology, ancestral memory, and futuristic symbolism.
In 2001, MARUANI MERCIER expanded to include an additional gallery in the historic art town Knokke followed in 2018 by a 15,000 sq ft exhibition space in Zaventem called THE WAREHOUSE. In addition to the celebrated exhibitions held there, in 2021 THE WAREHOUSE hosted Kwesi Botchway, Cornelius Annor, Johnson Eziefula, and Samuel de Saboia at its artist residency. MARUANI MERCIER will remain committed to exhibiting the artist that it hosts there across its galleries.
