Marie Theres Berger

About

A native of Germany, Marie Theres studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and then at the Ecole du Louvre, leading her to make the City of Light her home. She now shares her time between Paris, the South of France, and various world travels. Berger has also been working as a lecturer in the Parisian and National French Museums since 2001.

“Painting is like life, beautiful and terrifying. Sometimes it’s hard to know who is imitating who. You are standing on the edge of a beach in the sun. Everything is fine. Nonetheless fear grips you. It’s because there is more to it than the picture; there is the sound of the waves. It is a simultaneous appeal to two senses; that’s what makes you dizzy. It’s the same unease we experience in front of Marie Theres Berger’s flowers. We don’t just see these flowers of hers; we smell them. We are amongst them. There are indecipherable contours, wild colours. But there is also that intoxicating scent of spring flowers. Smell must cohabit with vision, but there is conflict. It makes our heads spin. And where’s the sky? There is no room for it in these large canvases. We are close to the bulbs, the stems, so near the roots and the earth. To life itself perhaps? Yes, it is there, watched over by all this beauty. And that’s what compels us to look, and we keep on looking, transfixed, captivated, fascinated. Art invariably stuns. There is no escape, only the contemplation of this fragile beauty which must spoil. Isn’t that what we wanted, the ephemeral? But we hope paradoxically that it will last. After all, that is what painting is: the ephemeral becoming permanent. Will this beauty fade? And decay? Flowers can’t last; it’s not possible. But these perhaps. What if they were there to cure us from death? Don’t they seem to be protected by a transparent film, or are they under water? Are we looking at them through glass? Or through our tears? No way of knowing. Here we are again. Our serenity gone. Fear is back. We are attracted to its familiar embrace. Vertigo and a pounding heart again. Marie Theres Berger’s pictures are like our fragile lives. Let’s let our gaze wander over them, our nostrils finely tuned. And let us not resist the intoxication which will invade us.” – Floral Vertigo, by Pierre Charras and translated by Oliver Bevan

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2017 – 19 Galerie Magalie Nourissat, Paris, France
2016         Galerie Plan B, Vaxjo, Sweden
2015         Galerie Plan B, Vaxjo, Sweden
2011         Galerie Hayasaki, Paris, France
2008         Hôtel des Consuls, Uzès, France
2007         Villa Mezara, Education Nationale, Paris, France
2006         JTN Jeune Théâtre Nationale, Paris, France
2005         Maison de la Culture de Bourges, France
2002         Jenaer Glas Museum, Villa Schott, Jena, Germany
1998         Galerie Kyra Maralt, Berlin, Germany
1997         Carspecken Scott Gallery, Wilmington, DE
1997         Lilla Galeriet, Helsingborg, Sweden
1994         Fondation Pioch Pelat, Castelnau le Lez, Montpellier, France
1994         Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY

Selected Group Exhibitions

2021         Ninth Street Women and Their Legacy, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE
2020         Cerulean Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2018         Galerie Magalie Nourissat, Paris, France
2017         Galerie Plan B, Vaxjo, Sweden
2016         Galerie Magalie Nourissat, Paris, France
2014         Cerulean Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2013         International Community House, Kyoto, Japan
2009         The Pennsylvania State Museum, Harrisburg, PA
2008         Fondation Lumières, Leuze sur Morsain, France
2007         Galerie Kyra Maralt, Berlin, Germany
1996         Mangel Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1993         Die Rote Villa, Berlin, Germany
1993         Galerie de France, Coral Gables, FL

Selected Public Collections

The Pennsylvania State Museum, Harrisburg, PA
The Bryn Mawr Collection, Bryn Mawr, PA
The Arkansas State Museum, Arkansas

Education

1983 – 85 Ecole Du Louvre, Paris, France
1982         Académie Penninghen, Paris, France
1978 – 81 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

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