Neal Baer Collection

Magnus Peterson Horner (b. 1997, Oxford, England) lives and works in New York. This painting comes from a series of paintings depicting a boy Horner babysat at the time. The light layer of gouache is translucent in parts of the canvas, revealing pencil preparatory sketching underneath.

These portraits are inspired by a young boy on the brink of adolescence. The boy is straddling between childhood and adulthood, between what he knows and does not know, between dark and light, as part of himself may become buried. These paintings show growth and change but they also explore the liminal space of the in-between. This turbulent time in everybody’s life may – for some – never end, never getting the relief of being uncertain.

– Press release, “Magnus Peterson Horner: Boy,” 14 January – 19 February 2022, Jenny’s

Horner applies a different painting style to each work in the series. For example, the watery, inchoate Boy in Bath contrasts with Impasto Boy, a heavy, more fantastical oil portrait.

Provenance
Jenny’s

See also
“Magnus Peterson Horner & McKinney – GandtX,” Gandt, New York, 16 July – 14 September 2020

The Manhattan Art Review, “Magnus Peterson Horner & McKinney – GandtX – Gandt – July 16 – September 14, 2020”