Martin Whatson’s six Vertical Gallery canvases in 2026

Vertical Gallery presented six Martin Whatson canvases across two Chicago exhibitions in 2026. Four small square works belonged to its 13-Year Anniversary Show; Ascending and Piece by piece appeared later in ASCENDING at Frame Chicago. These are canvas works, not paper editions sharing the same titles. The gallery currently marks all six sold out. It displays $3,500 for each of the two ASCENDING paintings; prices for the four anniversary works are not established by the gallery listings.

Four subjects within the same square format

The anniversary collection identifies Balloon, Poise, The Penguin and Parachute as mixed-media works on canvas, each measuring 30 × 30 cm. Vertical describes Balloon as a unique edition of ten, Poise and Parachute as unique editions of five, and The Penguin as a unique edition of three. Its listings each referred to one available example. That is the gallery’s allocation, not a claim that the entire edition was offered by Vertical or that only one example exists.

The equal format makes differences in Whatson’s placement of colour particularly clear. In Balloon, the bright marks occupy the balloon’s envelope while the small basket remains below. Parachute spreads colour across the canopy and leaves the suspension lines and descending figure in grayscale. Both images connect colour with the surface carrying a figure through space, but the rounded envelope and broad canopy organize that colour differently. The comparison is useful when identifying a particular canvas: neither the common size nor the recurring graffiti marks substitutes for the subject and edition designation.

Poise and The Penguin use a different relationship between figure and intervention. The dancer retains a largely monochrome head, arms and legs, with colour concentrated around the tutu. The penguin’s torso becomes the main field of layered marks while its head remains legible above them. These observations describe the exact gallery photographs. They do not imply that every example in a unique edition has identical hand-applied details.

Two larger canvases approach climbing differently

Vertical lists Ascending and Piece by piece as acrylic, spray paint and marker on canvas. Both are dated 2026, described as number 1/3 in a unique edition, and given dimensions of 30 × 40 cm. The published photographs show different orientations; the gallery’s dimension wording is retained without assuming that both compositions hang the same way.

Ascending shows a backpacked climber stepping up a rising field of colour. Piece by piece places a figure on a ladder, reaching into a wall of marks. The former turns the coloured surface into terrain; the latter presents it as something being worked on. Their shared materials and edition notation therefore do not make them interchangeable variations of one composition. A collector comparing them gains more from the action within the image and its orientation than from the matching price alone.

Exhibition dates do not establish first-sale dates

The 13-Year Anniversary Show ran March 13–April 19 at Jackson Junge Gallery. ASCENDING runs September 14–October 18 at Frame Chicago, with a separate September 17 reception. Vertical says its two Whatson paintings will ship or be available for collection after October 18.

The first-sale dates have not been established. The 2026 date identifies when these canvases were made, while the exhibition dates locate their documented gallery presentation. Neither should be substituted for an individual purchase date in a work’s provenance.