Martyn Cross (b. 1975, Yate) is a visual artist and painter based in Bristol. His paintings draw upon aspects of mythology and folklore, the medieval, and ideas of human metamorphosis. The imagery frequently depicts personified landscapes suggesting the potential for earthly things to share matter. In the studio, contemplative layering of pigment is followed by meticulous bothering of the painted surface - on the wall the paintings appear plucked from an unknown and ambiguous history. This methodical practice of world-making is at once both joyous and troubling, familiar and mysterious.

 

Recent exhibitions include: My Assembled Selves, Flatland Projects, Bexhill (2023); The Moth and the Thunderclap, Stuart Shave Modern Art, London (2023); Ares, OHSH Projects at Cromwell Place, London (2023); O, happiness! happiness!, Hales Gallery, London (2022); Roarings Further Out, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York (2022); Myths of Observation, Hales Gallery, London (2022); Green Minds, mepaintsme, online (2022); Earth Hymns, Ratio 3, San Francisco (2021); Your Foot in My Face, Kingsgate Project Space, London (2021); A Thought Sublime, Marianne Boesky, New York (2021).

 

He is represented by Hales Gallery, London, and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York.