Martyn Cross: All Shall Be Well
26 October – 22 December 2023
Marianne Boesky Gallery
507 West 24 Street, New York
Informed by literature and medieval religious imagery (and inspired by a recent medieval wall painting pilgrimage around England), a new body of otherworldly psychological landscapes by Martyn Cross (b. 1975 in Yate, England) will debut at Marianne Boesky Gallery for the artist’s largest New York solo exhibition. ‘All Shall Be Well’ derives its title from fourteenth-century writings by Julian of Norwich, a woman who lived in self-imposed religious isolation within a small cell connected to a church similar to those which the artist visited during his recent medieval wall painting tour.
Borrowing a distinctive, muted color palette from the ancient coastal landscapes of southwestern England, Cross layers scratched, scrubbed, and dry-brushed pigment to yield weathered and worn textures that conjure the luminosity of medieval manuscripts and frescoes. From these surfaces emerge references to the terrestrial and to the celestial: roots grow into the ground and morph into humanoid creatures; hands reach down from the clouds; comets transform into eyeballs as they blaze across the sky.
Learn more in the above-linked press release, and browse a preview of works on view below. Image files are in the above-linked Dropbox; usage must be with the credit line “copyright of the artist and courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery”
