Edge of the City by Chris Cyprus

Chris Cyprus explores the relationship between landscape and urban expansion, drawing on his personal experience growing up on the outskirts of Manchester.

Edge of the City began on walks taken after the pandemic reshaped daily routine. These quiet, regular walks became a kind of self-care for Chris, and a way of reconnecting with his surroundings. What emerged was a recurring, striking contrast: cattle grazing in quiet Pennine fields, with Manchester’s cranes and high-rises visible on the horizon beyond.

This series of paintings, all created during the last five years, capture this overlap between stillness and motion, countryside and city, exploring a constantly changing landscape that is physically close, but can feel far away.

Born in Gorton and raised on the edge of the Pennines, Chris brings a personal dimension to the work. As a self-taught artist working outside the city’s traditional art establishment, he has long felt like an outsider to Manchester’s wider art scene.