Fotoausstellung Vera Mercer - STILL.LEBEN

From February 7 to April 18, 2026, the Leica Gallery Stuttgart is showing works by the photographic artist Vera Mercer. Her opulent, neo-baroque still lifes combine classic vanitas motifs with colorful, detailed arrangements.

More recently, Vera Mercer has expanded her color-intensive still lifes to include monochrome works, which she shoots with the Leica M11 Monochrom. Despite the absence of color, the strong contrasts create an effect that is as sensual as it is atmospheric. Mercer's still lifes carry no fixed symbolic meanings - rather, she sees them as positive statements on life and translates the classic genre into a contemporary visual language.
Mercer, born in Berlin in 1936, became known as a photographer in Paris in the 1960s. She received her first camera from Daniel Spoerri, with whom she had been living there since 1959. Photography gave her access to influential artistic circles. She documented the milieu of Jean Tinguely, Eva Aeppli, Marcel Duchamp, Niki de Saint-Phalle and Daniel Spoerri - intimate portraits that today are also considered valuable historical testimonies.
Her special relationship with the culinary developed in the Parisian market halls "Les Halles", where she captured the hustle and bustle and the variety of goods. Fruit, vegetables, fish and meat have remained central motifs in her art ever since - many of the arranged objects find their way back to the dining table after being photographed. For Mercer, eating together forms the emotional center of her artistic thinking.
In 1968, she moved to Omaha/Nebraska with her second husband Mark Mercer and made a significant contribution to the development of the Old Market District. Since the 2000s, she has increasingly focused on still life and has become internationally recognized for her unique style, which combines baroque opulence, surreal elements and contemporary aesthetics. Contrasts such as light and shadow, tradition and modernity or realism and illusion characterize her pictorial world.