Martyn Cross
Even Night is not Night Enough, 2023
Oil on flax linen
127.2 x 182.8 x 2.3 cm
50 1/8 x 72 x 7/8 in
50 1/8 x 72 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’s ‘Even Night is not Night Enough’...
Martyn Cross (b. 1975, Yate, UK) holds a BA in Fine Art from Bath Spa University. He lives and works in Bristol, UK.
Cross’s ‘Even Night is not Night Enough’ (2023) is a magnificent painting which has a mythological presence. The narrative remains 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.
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 elements of landscape, which transform into uncanny scenes.
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; Modern Art, London, UK; Oceans Apart, Manchester; Bath Spa University; Spike Island, Bristol; LIMBO, Margate; Stroud Museum, UK; Kettles Yard, Cambridge, among others. Cross' work is in the collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami and NN Contemporary Art, Northampton, UK.
Cross’s ‘Even Night is not Night Enough’ (2023) is a magnificent painting which has a mythological presence. The narrative remains 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.
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 elements of landscape, which transform into uncanny scenes.
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; Modern Art, London, UK; Oceans Apart, Manchester; Bath Spa University; Spike Island, Bristol; LIMBO, Margate; Stroud Museum, UK; Kettles Yard, Cambridge, among others. Cross' work is in the collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami and NN Contemporary Art, Northampton, UK.