Mercer Union
| Established | 1979 |
|---|---|
| Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Type | Contemporary Art |
| Website | www.mercerunion.org |
Coordinates: 49°39′31″N 79°26′32″W / 49.65861°N 79.44222°W
Mercer Union is an artist-run centre in Toronto, Ontario, established in 1979 to exhibit contemporary art.
In 2008, the gallery moved to the Bloor and Lansdowne area in Toronto's west end. Previously the gallery had held homes at 29 Mercer Street (from which the name Mercer Union was derived), 439 King Street West, 333 Adelaide St. West, and 37 Lisgar Street.
Notable artists who have had an exhibition at Mercer Union include Sol LeWitt, George Bures Miller, Mark Leckey, Jeremy Deller, G. B. Jones, Mowry Baden, Bill Burns, Betty Goodwin, Jana Sterbak, and Geoffrey Farmer.
In 1993, Mercer Union was involved in a case of censorship. The gallery was raided by the Morality Bureau of the Metropolitan Toronto Police in December 1993, and works by Canadian artist Eli Langer were seized. The artworks addressed the sexuality of children and our cultural perceptions of it. Although Langer and the gallery’s director were initially charged with violating the child pornography provisions of the Criminal Code, those charges were withdrawn by the Crown which chose to prosecute the paintings instead. The hearing - the first to occur under Canada’s controversial child pornography legislation - examined the question of whether Langer’s depictions of nude children and adults were illegal and should be forfeited, as well as the constitutionality of the law. The artworks were later ruled legal.
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