Mario Merz (1 January 1925 – 9 November 2003) was an Italian artist associated with the development of Arte Povera.
Merz discarded abstract expressionism’s subjectivity in favor of opening art to exterior space: a seed or a leaf in the wind becomes a universe on his canvas. From the mid-1960s, his paintings echoed his desire to explore the transmission of energy from the organic to the inorganic, a curiosity that led him to create works in which neon lights pierced everyday objects, such as an umbrella, a glass, a bottle or his own raincoat. Without ever using ready-made objects as “things” (at least to the extent that the Nouveau Realistes in France did), Merz and his companions drew the guiding lines of a renewed life for Italian art in the global context.
In 1968, Merz began to work on his famous igloos and continued throughout his life, revealing the prehistoric and tribal features hidden within the present time and space. He saw the mobility of this typical shelter for nomadic wandering as an ideal metaphor for the space of the artist.
Complete biography: http://fondazionemerz.org/mario-merz/
Mario Merz. Time is Mute - Retiro Park, Palacio de Velázquez, Madrid
Mario Merz. Igloos - Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milano
Mario Merz - Early Works - Gladstone Gallery - New York, New York City, NY
Mario Merz. La natura è l’equilibrio - Fondazione Merz, Turin
Mario Merz - Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York, NY
Mario Merz - Skulpturenhalle - Thomas Schütte Stiftung, Neuss
Mario Merz - Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Atenas
Mario Merz - Kunsthaus Klüber, Weinheim
Mario Merz - Numbers Are Prehistoric - Museum of Cycladic Art, Atenas
Mario Merz. Città irreale - Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venise
Mario Merz - Pace London, Londres
Mario Merz - Gagosian Gallery, Paris
Mario Merz - Pitture 1955 - 1965 - Konrad Fischer Galerie - Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf
Senza titolo - Meessen De Clercq, Bruxelles
Mario Merz: Major Works from the 1980s - Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York, NY
Mario Merz - What Is to Be Done? - Bildmuseet, Umeå
What Is to Be Done? - Bildmuseet, Umeå
Mario Merz, 18 September – 18 October 2008, Gladstone Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA
Mario Merz, 12 June – 2 August 2008, Sprovieri Gallery, London, UK
Mario Merz, 4 June – 31 July 2008, Margarete Roeder Gallery and Editons, Soho, New York, USA
Mario Merz: The Magnolia Table, Sperone Westwater, New York (solo)
Mario Merz, Salvatore + Carline Ala, Milan, Italy (solo)
Buchmann Galerie Berlin, Berlin (solo)
Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy (solo)
Disegni, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (solo)
Mario Merz: 8-5-3, Gagosian Gallery, London, UK (solo)
Castello Di Rivoli, Fondazione Torino Musei, Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy (solo)
In Memoriam, Kewenig Galerie, Cologne, Gremany (solo)
Galerie Tschudi, Chelsa Madalena, Zuoz/Engadin (solo)
Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany (solo)
Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy (solo)
La Luce di Volta: an installation by Mario Merz, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy (solo)
Christian Stein Gallery, Milan, Italy (solo)
Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany (solo)
Ausgestellt-Vorgestellt III, Skulpturen-Museum Glaskasten Marl, Germany (solo)
Skulpturen-Museum Glaskasten Marl, Germany (solo)
Galerie Jule Kewenig, Frechen, Germany (solo)
Christian Stein Gallery, Milan, Italy (solo)
Dum u Zvonu, Prague, Czech Republic (solo)
Vera Van Laer Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium (solo)
Museo Comunale D'Arte Moderna Ascona, Italy (solo)
Mario Merz, Il Centro per l'arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci Prato, Italy (solo)
Mario Merz: A Retrospective, Guggenheim Museum, New York (solo)
Kunsthaus Zurich Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
Whitechapel Art Gallery London, UK (solo)
Tucci Russo Gallery, Torre Pellice, Turin, Italy (solo)