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: tobypainterboy@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
Curated shows
‘FROM THE BIG SPLASH TO THE LAST SPLASH - SPACE JUNK’ - Strange Field, French Street Studios, Glasgow - 10/10/24 - 20/10/24:
A DIY cross-generational group show, inviting UK wide artists & Glasgow based artists to respond to the space. Featuring: Beagles & Ramsay, Alexander Costello, Ruth Faulkner, Charlie Hammond, Faisal Hussein, Laura Lees, Brendan Lyons, Ted Mackenzie, Cornelius Quabeck, Richard Walker + others
‘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. Featuring Beagles & Ramsay, Carole Gibbons, Tom Hammick, Ruth Faulkner, Toby Rosenbloom, Brendan Lyons, Sarah Messenger, Charlie Hammond, Owen Piper, Vincent Hawkins, Richard Walker, Cornelius Quabeck, Lewis Bissett, Erica Eyres + others
‘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, featuring Carole Gibbons, Richard Walker, Michael Clarence, Cornelius Quabeck and Derek Marks + others
Solo Exhibitions/ Two person exhibitions
K’POW! SOLO SHOW @ iota, Glasgow
Dates tbc’d - 2025 … New installation with a series of related drawings, collages and sculptures.
‘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
‘DRIVE’ @ PAPPLE - 24/08/2025 - 09/11/2025
Inaugural show at PAPPLE, East Lothian curated by Siobhan McLaughlin: Harriet Bowman, Charlie Duck, Naomi Frears, Jiame Gili, Sam O’Donnell, Sarah Messenger, Toby Messenger, Becky Tyrell, Babalola Yusuf
‘SUPER NIGHT RIDERS’ @ Shapeero Murray, Dec 2024 - with Andy Murray, Beth Shapeero, Oscar Marcus Boyle, Kirsty Lackie, Colette Kerr
‘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
Hospitalfield House, with 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. 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. 2007/2006/2001
Group Show, The Edinburgh Gallery, Dundas St Edinburgh, March 2006
Glasgow Independent Studios Group Exhibition at GI. 2004
Residencies/Exhanges/Research
08/01/2025 - 08/03/2025 - Gallery Residency @ Shapeero-Murray - A live-build perforative sculpture - an F1 car, scale 1:1 built in the venue, site specific project
2020 - community art project with Erskine Arts. Creating a live band stage from recycled cardboard. Project cut short by COVID pandemic.
03-04, 2012 – sketchbooks, Malaga, Spain (subsequent drawing trips in 2014 & 2016/2017)
Sept - Nov 2010 - Hospitalfield House, Arbroath (in arrangement with director William Payne)
2008 (October- November)- Hospitalfield House, Alumni Residency
Dec 2007-January 2008 - Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder, Trondheim, Norway
May-July 2007 - Elliot Caravan Park, Arbroath (series exhibited in solo show, ‘Freedom No 5’ at GAC in October 2007)
March - June, 2006- RSW Hospitalfield Residency, Hospitalfield House, Arbroath, Scotland
June-July 2002- Siena, Italy (sketchbooks – work exhibited in ‘in-between’ @ Inter/ Media Glasgow, 2005)
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.
