Shapes, Forms and Colours

“Big dusty drawings all along the floor entangling my long johns silver spoon big time rag band randy bastard”

Toby Messenger's artistic practice is layered and multifaceted, drawing upon a variety of influences and materials that enable creative expression across different mediums.

He draws inspiration from many sources, including pre-digital and post-digital era instrumentation, F1 , MotoGP and daily flotsam. His life-sized pop figurative assemblages - described by artist Paul Martin as naturalistic merzbau - evoke connections to movements such as Neo-Dada, Nouveau Réalisme, and Arte Povera, emphasizing a playful approach to the readymade.

By contrast, his drawings and paintings evoke a quiet complexity. This approach exemplifies his interest in the interconnectedness of various media, as he applies the principles of observational drawing and painting to both.

The foundational concepts underpinning the surface rendering in three-dimensional works, such as Cans (2021), continue from those displayed in the drawings of the Aerial Rhythm series created a decade earlier. The "push and pull" of space—"the planimetric... its insistence and need for it... a mysterious flatness that's also not flat" (1)—remains consistent.

In a broader sense—regardless of medium—Messenger's work provides an opportunity to view the world from a unique perspective:

“Toby Messenger's assemblage work operates like a Sega controller: one switch, and a secret highway emerges in front of you…” (2)

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1. Colin Smith (2005), “The Difference Between a Wolf and a Dog,” in conversation with Wayne Thiebaud, *Turps Banana*, Issue 4

2. Andy Murray (2024), Foreword to *SUPER NIGHT RIDERS* at Shapeero-Murray