Mahsa Merci, born in Tehran, Iran, holds an MFA from the University of Manitoba, Canada, and currently lives and works in Toronto, Ontario.

Merci works across painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, and photography to examine how the self is shaped within structures of power that regulate and constrain it. For Merci, identity is not fixed but continuously formed through processes ofrepetition, suppression, and internalization that become inscribed onto the body and reorganize it from within. The body emerges as a shifting site where these forces unfold, fragmenting, extending, and entangling with constructed forms, remaining in a suspended state rather than resolving into stability. Their material approach reinforces this condition: layered oil on panel and contrasting sculptural elements carry traces of accumulation, erasure, and tension, embedding instability into the work itself. Rooted in their position as a queer Iranian artist, their practice reflects the lived negotiation between visibility and concealment, where structures of control shape both the body and its conditions of becoming.

Merci has exhibited their works in over forty solo and group exhibitions in Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, London, France, UAE, and the United States. Writing on their work has been published in various well-known magazines globally such as Elephant Magazine, Oxford American, Juxtapoze Magazine and It’s nice that. Their Monograph, Wet Light in Midnight, was published by Wolf Hill in 2025. Merci was shortlisted for the 5 Rising Painters to Discover in 2022 by Artsy.