Born, Birmingham 1976
Visual Artist & Curated Projects: ‘From the Big Splash to the Last Splash’ series.
Lives & works in Glasgow - studios at GIS, Trongate 103/ Outer Spaces Trilogy
website (preview) tobymessenger.com
www.instagram.com/_toby_messenger
email: tobymessenger@hotmail.com
Education:
1996–2000 BA(HONS) Fine Art, Painting, The Glasgow School of Art
1995–1996 Foundation ( Distinction ) The Leith School of Art, Edinburgh
Curational:
From the Big Splash to the Last Splash: No Wave - No Art
artists and venue tbc‘d - Glasgow 2027
‘FROM THE BIG SPLASH TO THE LAST SPLASH: NEW WAVES’ at T R A N S M I S S I O N , Glasgow
05/06 - 14/06/2026
Phillip Allen - Beagles and Ramsay - Lewis Bissett - Bob and Roberta Smith - James Connor Brown - Waffle Burger - Chris Connarty - Neil Clements - Gabriella Day - Alan Dimmick - Meredith Donnachie - Lilian Evans - Keith Farquhar - Moyna Flannigan - Carole Gibbons - Henry Gibbons Guy - Anne Goldrick - Richard Hughes - Allyson Keehan - Kathy Lomax - Brian Love - Ted McKenzie - Jock McFadyen - Toby Messenger - Richard Owen - Jim Ramsay - Daisy Richardson - Keir B Richardson - Fiona Robertson - SMITH/STEWART - Sue Tompkins
With performances:
Fantôme Cult
A Happy Return (Matt Fowler and Aimee Henderson)
Featured on Glasgow Art Map Journal:
https://www.glasgowartmap.com/new-waves-2/
‘FROM THE BIG SPLASH TO THE LAST SPLASH - SPACE JUNK’ - Strange Field, French Street Studios, Glasgow - 10/10/24 - 20/10/24
The title refers to a Lucia Fontana show from Musei Civici Fiorentini. Open to interpretation, 26 artists - working in a variety of media - were invited to create works in response to the space:
Beagles and Ramsay - James Brown - Christopher Connarty - Alexander Costello - Alice Delhanty - Charlie Hammond - Levi Haines - Faisal Hussein - Masaki Ishikawa - Ruth Faulkner - Laura Lees - Brendan Lyons - Ted Mckenzie - Jane Mckeown - Toby Messenger - Cornelius Quabeck - Mark Purves - Jim Ramsay - Ross Sinclair - Richard Walker - Mark Weeks
With performances:
A Happy Return (Matt Fowler and Aimee Henderson)
Bear Kenchington
‘FROM THE BIG SPLASH TO THE LAST SPLASH’ PART 2 @IOTA, Glasgow 02/09/23 - 16/09/2023
A DIY cross-generational international group show, involving artists from Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Liverpool, Dusseldorf, Paris and Ottawa.
Beagles & Ramsay - Karl Bielik - Lewis Bissett - James Brown - Alice Delhanty -EC - Erica Eyres - Ruth Faulkner - Carole Gibbons - Henry Gibbons Guy - Tom Hammick - Charlie Hammond - Vincent Hawkins - Brian Love Brendan Lyons - Ted McKenzie - Mac McNaughton - Derek Marks - Paul Martin - Sarah Messenger - Toby Messenger - Owen Piper - Cornelius Quabeck - Tom Robinson - Toby Rosenbloom - Richard Walker
‘FROM THE BIG SPLASH TO THE LAST SPLASH’ @TERRACE, London, 15/03/23 - 09/04/23
A DIY cross-generational international group show of 32 painters from Glasgow, London, USA, Canada, Germany & France:
James Baker - Lewis Bissett - James Connor Brown - David Caldwell - Michael Clarence - Sam Creasey - Alice Delhanty - Massimo Franco - Ruth Franklin - Giovanni Giacoia - Carole Gibbons - Henry Gibbons Guy - Sarah Grant - Imogen Guy - Vicky Hawkins - Christopher Hough - Giuseppe Iozzi - Brian Love - Danny Markey - Derek Marks - Paul Martin - Ted Mckenzie - Mac Mcnaughton - Toby Messenger - Anastasia Mironova - Samuel O'Donnell - Cornelius Quabeck - Toby Rosenbloom - Richard Shields - Sharon Thomas - Toby Urcell - Cassie Vaughan - Richard Walker - Jessica Wolfson
Solo Exhibitions/ Two person
Road to Nowhere - Solo show @ IOTA, Glasgow - 09/26
The show pairs new sculptural works with a broad survey of the artist’s most important drawings from the last twenty years
SYSTEMS IN COLLAPSE - Solo show @ Boardroom Committee Room, Govan, Glasgow: 10/04 - 27/04/2026
Accompanying texts by Andy Murray Shapeero-Murray, and Kate Holford co-director BCR
Interviewed for Sunny Govan FM by artist Janie Nicoll:
https://www.mixcloud.com/SunnyG103/art-indy-the-diy-scene-with-janie-nicoll-01-may2026/
BCR webpage:
https://boardroomcommitteeroom.com/toby-messenger-systems-in-collapse
Featured on Glasgow Art Map Journal:
https://www.glasgowartmap.com/systems-in-collapse/
‘I HEAR A NEW WORLD’ curated by Anne Marr and Markus Acher @ Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany - Feb - March 2024- Invitation to create a performative live-build installation alongside artists from Japan, Germany & the UK, featuring: Ruohann Wang, Mat Fowler & Aimee Henderson, Asuna and Katsura Mouri
‘GOOD SHOW’ - Toby Messenger & James Brown, The Foyer,Trongate 103 - 03/22 - new neon work, working with Norrie Swift at DH signs, Ballieston Glasgow
‘TURNING UP IN A TIGER SUIT AT A TECHNO PARTY’ - installation at The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 02/2020
‘THE GRAND PARADE OF LIFELESS PACKAGING’ installation in the old post office, Piazza shopping centre, Paisley. Commissioned by East Renfrewshire Arts for the inaugural Paisley youth arts festival - 09/2019
‘BALLAST NATION’ Toby Messenger & James Connor Brown, The Foyer, Trongate 103, 06/12/18 – 20/01/2019
‘CRASH AND BURN’ Toby Messenger & James Connor Brown, Glasgow Project Room, 03/2017
‘THE EFFECTS OF GOOD & BAD GOVERNMENT’, Solo Exhibition, Glasgow Project Room, Trongate 103, 13/08/2011
‘FREEDOM 13’ Drawing exhibition, North Glasgow College, March 2009
‘FLAT/SPACE', with Ehryn Torrell (Canada), Babelkunst, Trondheim, Norway. Dec 2007
'FREEDOM No. 5', The Glasgow Art Club ( RGI Fellowship Award ) October 2007 - Solo exhibition of work made on residency at Hospitalfield House from 2006 & 2007.
'IN-BETWEEN', inter/media, King Street, Glasgow. Two person exhibition, with Jackie Anderson. May - June 2005
Group Exhibitions
Group Show - Tay Street, Edinburgh (title TBC), Edinburgh Festival
15 August – 29 August 2026
Curated by John Ayscough
Sam Ainsley – Lily Ashrowan – Beagles & Ramsay – Sarah Callmus – Hannah Dove – Mark Haddon – Kevin Harman – Maggie Hills – Iain Irving – Paul Kier – Rowan Mace – Billy McCall – Toby Messenger – Cathy Orton – Sienna Ponting – Elaine Speirs
Rock, Paper, Scissors - 05/06/2026 - 14/06/2026 - curated by Michael Coppelov
Anna Brass, Michael Coppelov, Cully McCollough, Toby Messenger, Philip Elbourne, Anusha Ramchand Novlani, Lottie Stoddart, Ellie Young
St. Gabriel's Church, Havant Road, London, E17 3JF
‘DRIVE’ @ PAPPLE - 27/03/2026 - 28/06/2025 - curated by Siobhan McLaughlin:
Harriet Bowman, Charlie Duck, Naomi Frears, Jiame Gili, Sam O’Donnell, Sarah Messenger, Toby Messenger, Becky Tyrell, Babalola Yusuf
SHAPEERO-MURRAY - Open House, Flat 1/1, 15 Albert Road:
Sandra de Matos, Erica Eyres, Nat Walpole, Claire Barclay, Matthew Arthur Williams, Beth Shapeero, Isaac Heard, Oscar Marcus Boyle, Kirsty Lackie, Fraser Taylor, Andy Murray, Angus Fernie, Colette Kerr, Tracey McMaster, Two-Step, Toby Messenger, Catherine Hyland
19/09 - 21/09/25. Southside Art Weekend/Glasgow Art Map.
ART CAR BOOT SALE @SWG3 - 13/07/25
‘SUPER NIGHT RIDERS’ @ Shapeero Murray, Dec 2024 - with Andy Murray, Beth Shapeero, Fraser Taylor, Oscar Marcus Boyle, Kirsty Lackie, Colette Kerr, Marguerite Carnac…
‘Still Life’ – Glasgow Project Room, Trongate 103, June 2021
'The Pyshcopathology of Everyday Life' : Toby Messenger, Andrew Cranston, Lorna Robertson, and Sandy Grant , Glasgow Project Room, 01/09/2011
Hospitalfield House, with Zoe Macdonell (Australia), April Phillips (Australia) & Jamie Lee Loy (Trinidad), 10/10 & Shake Makelele (Kenya, ROSL scholar) and Mhairi Malcolm (Scotland), 09/10
Summer Exhibition, Thompson's Gallery, Marylebone, London
'Hell For Leather', Glasgow Project Room, Trongate 103. 09/09
'The Painted Image', with Elaine Woo, Philip Guerry, Susan Kennedy; curated by Stuart Mackenzie. House for an Art Lover, Glasgow. 07/09
The Aspect Prize Finalists Exhibition, 'The Gallery', 28 Cork Street, London. March 23rd - 28th March, 2009
Aspect Painting Prize Exhibition - shortlisted for Finalists show in London -Paisley Art Gallery. 06/08
RSW Annual exhibition, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. 02/08
Royal Glasgow Institute Annual Exhibition, The Mitchell Library/The Mclellan Galleries, Glasgow. 2007/2006/2005/2001
Group Show, The Edinburgh Gallery, Dundas St Edinburgh, March 2006
Glasgow Independent Studios Group Exhibition at GI. 2004
Residencies/Exhanges/Research
Collaboration with Vox Liminis, Glasgow on a participatory project involving people on day release and individuals with lived experience of imprisonment connected to HMP Barlinnie, culminating in the creation of new site-specific work.
29/05 - 19/06/2026
Gallery residency at Shapeero-Murray
08/01/2025 - 03/03/2025
An F1 race car - 1:1 scale - built on-site
Live-build performative sculpture with a composite wall drawing
‘I HEAR A NEW WORLD’ curated by Anne Marr and Markus Acher @ Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany - Feb - March 2024- Invitation to create a performative live-build installation alongside artists from Japan, Germany & the UK, featuring: Ruohann Wang, Mat Fowler & Aimee Henderson, Asuna and Katsura Mouri
2020 - community art project with Erskine Arts. Creating a live band stage from recycled cardboard. Project cut short by COVID pandemic
Malaga sketchbooks
March - April 2012 (subsequent trips in 2016/2017)
Hospitalfield House
Sept - Nov 2010 (in arrangement with director William Payne)
Hospitalfield House, Alumni Residency 2008 (October- November)
Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder, Trondheim Norway
Dec 2007-January 2008
Elliot Caravan Park, Arbroath
May - July 2007 (series exhibited in solo show, ‘Freedom No 5’ at GAC in October 2007)
RSW Hospitalfield House Residency
March - June, 2006, Arbroath, Scotland
Siena, Italy (sketchbooks – work exhibited in ‘in-between’ @ Inter/ Media Glasgow, 2005)
June - July 2003
Undergraduate student exchange, Norwich school of Art: January 1999 - March 1999
Awards
2010- John Moores Painting Prize, second round
2008/2009 - Finalist, The Aspect Painting Prize (exhibition at Cork Street, London)
2005 The Glasgow Art Club Fellowship Award
Bibliography
09/23 - The Skinny
09/23- Glasgow Art Map
21/03/09- Aspect Prize 'Artist Profile', The Glasgow Herald
2007 - 'Babel 2007' - annual publication of LKV residency program
22/12/07 - 'With A Hint of Munch' (Med en anelse Munch), Heidi Oliv Wollamo, Review in 'Udresleavifen'
Dec 2007 - ‘Intimate Meditations', Kristin Mandt Heim (website at http://babel.teks.no/) July, 2005 - The List: 'In-Between' Exhibition Review, Alexander Kennedy
June 2005 'In-Between' Essay on Jackie Anderson and Toby Messenger, by Jack Mottram
Miscellaneous:
2018 - Future Kid AKA - Little Fluffy Toby : Self released 10” vinyl
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ERUTh7sbt0
2001 - initiated and co-ordinated the building of the 48 King Street studios at Glasgow independent Studios providing 11 new studio spaces for fellow graduates from the GSA
06/23 - Artist consultant on the advisory panel for Erskine Arts interviewing prospective applicants for the Artist in Residence programme.
