Ramping up for his first solo exhibition in New York City, Ian Francis is set to unveil a new body of his haunting, yet exceedingly moving, work at the Joshua Liner Gallery next week. Opening Thursday, March 3rd, Fireland will see the British artist truly testing the bounds of his imagination and flexing his technical muscle to create a raw mixed-media blend of abstraction and figuration, a lucid marriage of dreamscapes lingering with nightmarish overtones.

As evidenced from the work exhibited during Art Basel Week in Miami (covered), Francis has only been getting better with time, brilliantly honing technique and vision into an utterly authentic and emotionally resonate style wholly his own. This body work – included 12 canvases and 12 works on paper – could easily be considered his strongest to date, highlighting just how talented he is both with the paintbrush and the pencil. The impact of his work can only be truly experienced in the flesh, so this is a must see show for anyone in the area.

Check out the rest of the preview after the jump.

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