Martyn Cross
Telluric Symphony, 2022
Oil on canvas
152.4 x 122.4 x 2.3 cm
60 x 48 1/4 x 7/8 in
60 x 48 1/4 x 7/8 in
Martyn Cross (b. 1975, Yate, UK) holds a BA in Fine Art from Bath Spa University. He lives and works in Bristol, UK. Cross is primarily a painter engaged with...
Martyn Cross (b. 1975, Yate, UK) holds a BA in Fine Art from Bath Spa University. He lives and works in Bristol, UK.
Cross is primarily a painter engaged with ‘world making.’ The act of painting for him is a means to explore the inner life and strangeness of the ordinary. Each work begins in reality, with recognizable limbs and elements of landscape, which transform into uncanny scenes.
Biomorphic landscapes speak to mythologies, but in Cross’s paintings the narratives are knowingly ambiguous. Familiar and mysterious, quiet and epic, scale and irregularity in proportion puzzles the viewer. Questions remain unanswered and meaning remains a mystery to the artist himself.
Paintings are made in contemplative layers; the pigments remain vibrant – his application and exquisite use of colour creates works that hum. Sanding and scratching the surface, Cross strives to make paintings that have lived a life, the trace of their existence evident. Deliberately hard to place in history, there is a timelessness to Cross’s paintings, reminiscent of unearthed artifacts.
Cross has exhibited work at many galleries, nationally and internationally, including Hales London; Marianne Boesky, NY; Ratio 3, Los Angeles, CA; OSHSH Projects, London; Oceans Apart, Manchester; Bath Spa University; Spike Island, Bristol; LIMBO, Margate; Stroud Museum, UK; Kettles Yard, Cambridge, among others. Cross will have a solo exhibition at Hales London this coming winter.
Cross is primarily a painter engaged with ‘world making.’ The act of painting for him is a means to explore the inner life and strangeness of the ordinary. Each work begins in reality, with recognizable limbs and elements of landscape, which transform into uncanny scenes.
Biomorphic landscapes speak to mythologies, but in Cross’s paintings the narratives are knowingly ambiguous. Familiar and mysterious, quiet and epic, scale and irregularity in proportion puzzles the viewer. Questions remain unanswered and meaning remains a mystery to the artist himself.
Paintings are made in contemplative layers; the pigments remain vibrant – his application and exquisite use of colour creates works that hum. Sanding and scratching the surface, Cross strives to make paintings that have lived a life, the trace of their existence evident. Deliberately hard to place in history, there is a timelessness to Cross’s paintings, reminiscent of unearthed artifacts.
Cross has exhibited work at many galleries, nationally and internationally, including Hales London; Marianne Boesky, NY; Ratio 3, Los Angeles, CA; OSHSH Projects, London; Oceans Apart, Manchester; Bath Spa University; Spike Island, Bristol; LIMBO, Margate; Stroud Museum, UK; Kettles Yard, Cambridge, among others. Cross will have a solo exhibition at Hales London this coming winter.