The exhibition of We-Art-XL 2023 happened in the old electric plant of the rue Volta in 1050 Brussels. A majestic building of 5000 m2.

Bert Mertens is one of the artists selected for the 2023 edition of the Woluwe-Saint-Pierrre Arts Prize, which this year is devoted to painting. The selected artists are exhibiting in June at the Salle Fabry in the townhall, Avenue Charles Thielemans 93, 1150 Brussels.

From May 17 to 30, a solo exhibition is organized at the Galerie Talmart, 22 rue du Cloître Saint-Merri, 75004 Paris, curated by Grigori Michel.

Vernissage on Tuesday 16 May at 6pm.
At 8pm: Interview with the writer Yannick Haenel on “Peinture et dévoilement” (Painting and unveiling).

The Gallery is open every day from 11am to 7pm. Closed on Monday 22 May.

Closing on Tuesday 30 May at 7pm.

With the support of the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris.

This exhibition was cancelled at the very last moment for reasons beyond our control.

From January 18 to March 12 2023, paintings are on exhibit at the Galerie Simoncini, 6 Rue Notre-Dame in Luxembourg. This magnificent gallery in the heart of the city is run by André Simoncini, also a poet and a bibliophile publisher. It is a great pleasure to join the artists selected by this extraordinary personality. The Galerie Simoncini is next to a very unique hotel where all the public spaces constitute an extension of the art gallery.

The Royal Academy of Belgium mandates the artist to provide the image of the invitation to the Public Session of the Class of Letters and Moral and Political Sciences, on May 14 2022.

At the beginning of May 2022, the Brussels workshop Voices in The City in Brussels requests to bring a pictorial touch to a series of meetings around the writer François Emmanuel, on the occasion of the release of his novel Raconter la nuit, published by Seuil, as well as the critical volume Le monde de François Emmanuel.
Interviews, readings of the text, cello accompaniment by Adrien Tsilogiannis and piano by Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven.
Among the paintings exhibited, Calligraphy receives the honors of the showcase.

Since May 2022 Bert Mertens has a new studio. It is a beautiful 100m2 space to work in and store his paintings.
Nothing can replace the real face to face with the canvases. The graining, the smell of the oil paint, the physical experience of the paintings’ size, all this forms an integral part of the pictural arts’ particular pleasure
The studio at Captain Crespel Street 36 B0.1 in 1050 Brussels can be visited on demand via bertmertens@me.com or +32 491 36 01 02.

In 2021, Bert Mertens is selected as a ’favorite’ of We-ArXL. Since 2019, he participates every autumn in We-Art-XL. He opens his studio as part of the Brussels artist trail and exhibits at the Établissement Demeuldre in Ixelles. It is a huge success. The painting Bruno’s Garage is placed at the entrance of the exhibition, and countless people photograph Dumping Site. Among more than one thousand visitors, a class of children refuses to believe that those paintings are not in fact photographs!

Princes and Princesses
On this painting (oil on canvas 120 x 120 cm), you will recognize the children of the sovereigns of Belgium. This is the moment of departure of Elisabeth, the princess of Belgium, to the WC Atlantic College (Wales) in August 2018. She leaves her brothers Gabriel and Emmanuel and her sister Eleonore.
This painting, made at the end of 2020, belongs to her Majesty the Queen of Belgium.