Martyn Cross is primarily a painter, creating works that speak to ancient and mythic lands. Applying thin layers of dry-brush pigment, the paintings are reminiscent of unearthed artifacts. Drawing on a myriad of concepts from mythology and the medieval, Cross’s paintings personify the landscape. Figures, eyes and solitary limbs emerge from clouds and rivers, speaking to an alternate fiction. Ambiguous narratives are formed in reoccurring scenes and motifs, creating an immersive world. In ‘The Only Thing Left Behind’ a fiery sun turns into an eye, a shell hums with energy to create an unusual composition, combining anthropomorphic features with the landscape.

Cross states, ‘At the heart of my practice lies a blend of compulsions: an unnerving need to physically produce something with my hands; a search for truth; to feel some kind of connection to the space I exist within; to imagine other potential human existence or experience beyond what we know.’