Carl Andre, John Armleder, Lynda Benglis, Pam Glick, Peter Halley, Joseph Kosuth, Paul Mogensen, Louise Nevelson, Kenneth Noland, Georg Karl Pfahler, Niele Toroni, Stanley Whitney, Sue Williams
MARUANI MERCIER is pleased to present Notes on Abstraction, a group exhibition opening in our Brussels gallery on 4th June. Bringing together some of the key exponents of international movements associated with abstract idiom, the exhibition features works executed between 1967 and the present day by artists including: Carl Andre, John Armleder, Lynda Benglis, Pam Glick, Peter Halley, Joseph Kosuth, Paul Mogensen, Louise Nevelson, Kenneth Noland, Georg Karl Pfahler, Niele Toroni, Stanley Whitney, Sue Williams.
In his essay titled “Notes on Abstraction” from 1987, Peter Halley considered the notion of the ‘abstract’ as a mode of transitioning from the specific to the universal, from individual experience to its relation with the socio-political context of our society today. Challenging the vision of abstraction as a purely formal and autonomous pursuit, he writes, “the history of abstract art is the history of a real progression in the social. It is the history of the organization of the compartmentalized spaces and the formal systems that make up the abstract world.” The exhibition traces the heterogeneous terrain of contemporary abstraction: from Minimalism’s material and spatial logic to conceptual language, serial procedure and contemporary disruptions of form. Notes on Abstraction presents it as a set of recurring questions – about surface, structure, repetition, embodiment, and social relations – that continue to be reformulated across generations.
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Av. Louise 430, 1050 Bruxelles
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Founded in 1995, MARUANI MERCIER represents 26 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 addition to the celebrated exhibitions held there, THE WAREHOUSE has hosted Kwesi Botchway, Cornelius Annor, and Johnson Eziefula as part of its annual artist residency. MARUANI MERCIER remains committed to exhibiting the artists it hosts across its galleries. In 2025, the gallery welcomed Samuel de Saboia as artist-in-residence at its Brussels gallery space.
Since 2018, MARUANI MERCIER has been calculating its CO₂ footprint and offsetting it through projects in Malawi, Brazil and Guatemala. We are proud to be one of the first carbon neutral galleries in the world.