Toby Messenger
- Website ,
- Systems in Collapse at Boardroom Committee Room, Govan - April 2026 ,
- Systems in Collapse - featured on Glasgow Art Map, April 2026 ,
- From the Big Splash to the Last Splash presents: New Waves at TRANSMISSION gallery, Glasgow - June 2026 ,
- Instagram ,
- Glasgow Independent Studios profile page
Toby Messenger is a Glasgow-based visual artist whose practice merges drawing, painting, assemblage, and installation.
Working primarily with cardboard, recycled wood, and household materials, he constructs scaled replicas of everyday objects - cars, bikes, bedroom DJ rigs - that channel a spirit of DIY ingenuity and cultural critique.
Rooted in the aesthetics of rave culture and a nostalgic fascination with the motor car, Messenger’s lo-fi constructions celebrate the studio as a space of making, memory, and quiet resistance. Beneath their playful surfaces, the works often reflect on wider systems of collapse, consumption, and disillusionment - transforming overlooked materials into playful, poignant monuments to a pre-digital world; Curator Kate Holford remarks,
“Despite their self-confessed ‘lo-fi’ style, there is a specificity that resists any urge to not take them seriously. Within their cardboard bellies, their nearly-bucket-seated centres; in their gesture toward whole machines known with such intimacy - out there at rallies, on driveways, on website listings… a sense of regret? of failure? of disillusionment? Something niggles. Perhaps it’s that collapse encircling. It’s certainly The Strait of Hormuz, the horror around which we must bear witness to and resist.”
Drawing remains central to his practice: closely observed studies of urban spaces, objects, and environments echo the tactile immediacy of his sculptural work. Across media, Messenger explores the creative potential of what’s at hand - improvisational yet intentional, rough-edged yet deeply considered.
Lived Experience
Toby Messenger is a Glasgow-based visual artist whose practice merges drawing, painting, assemblage, and installation.
Working primarily with cardboard, recycled wood, and household materials, he constructs scaled replicas of everyday objects - cars, bikes, bedroom DJ rigs - that channel a spirit of DIY ingenuity and cultural critique.
Rooted in the aesthetics of rave culture and a nostalgic fascination with the motor car, Messenger’s lo-fi constructions celebrate the studio as a space of making, memory, and quiet resistance. Beneath their playful surfaces, the works often reflect on wider systems of collapse, consumption, and disillusionment - transforming overlooked materials into playful, poignant monuments to a pre-digital world; Curator Kate Holford remarks,
“Despite their self-confessed ‘lo-fi’ style, there is a specificity that resists any urge to not take them seriously. Within their cardboard bellies, their nearly-bucket-seated centres; in their gesture toward whole machines known with such intimacy - out there at rallies, on driveways, on website listings… a sense of regret? of failure? of disillusionment? Something niggles. Perhaps it’s that collapse encircling. It’s certainly The Strait of Hormuz, the horror around which we must bear witness to and resist.”
Drawing remains central to his practice: closely observed studies of urban spaces, objects, and environments echo the tactile immediacy of his sculptural work. Across media, Messenger explores the creative potential of what’s at hand - improvisational yet intentional, rough-edged yet deeply considered.
Messenger studied Fine Art (Painting) at The Glasgow School of Art and has exhibited widely across the UK and internationally. Most recently his solo and collaborative projects include include Drive at PAPPLE, East Lothian (2026), and his solo show ‘Systems in Collapse’ at Boardroom Committee Room, Govan Glasgow in April 2026 - hoisting half-scale vehicles up three floors directly into the exhibition space. Documentation and a video of the installation can be viewed at
https://boardroomcommitteeroom.com/toby-messenger-systems-in-collapse
(also featured here in Glasgow Art Map journal)
https://www.glasgowartmap.com/systems-in-collapse/
In early 2025, Messenger was artist-in-residence at Shapeero-Murray, where he produced a site-specific, performative 1:1 scale sculpture of a Formula 1 car. In 2024, he participated in I Hear a New World at Villa Stuck, Munich, curated by Markus and Micha Acher (The Notwist / Alien Disko Records) and Anne Marr, alongside international artists from Germany, Japan and the UK.
Previous shows include Turning Up in a Tiger Suit at a Techno Party (The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow), The Effects of Good and Bad Government, Crash n’ Burn, and The Psychopathology of Everyday Life at Glasgow Project Room, as well as Freedom No.5 at Glasgow Art Club (RGI Fellowship Award) and Flat/Space at Babelkunst in Trondheim, Norway. In 2008–09, he was a finalist in The Aspect Painting Prize, exhibiting at Gallery 28 Cork Street, London.
Messenger has curated four large group exhibitions under the moniker From the Big Splash to the Last Splash at Terrace (London) and IOTA (Glasgow) in 2023, and SPACE JUNK at Strange-Field (Glasgow) in 2024 - each showcasing cross-generational artists in expansive, DIY-spirited formats. A fourth show ‘New Waves’ was held at T R A N S M I S S I O N Glasgow in June 2026 as part of the Glasgow International fringe events programme
https://www.glasgowartmap.com/new-waves-2/
Earlier in his career, Toby Messenger played a key role in the organisation and construction of new studio facilities for Glasgow Independent Studios at 48 King Street in 2001.
Residencies include a three-month Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) residency at Hospitalfield House in 2006 (with a return alumni residency in 2008), and a residency at Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder in Trondheim in 2007.
In June 2026, he co-collaborated with Vox Liminis on a participatory project involving people on day release and individuals with lived experience of imprisonment connected to HMP Barlinnie, which culminated in the creation of a half scale G4S prison van.
In August, Messenger will participated in group exhibition ‘THANK FUCK FOR ARTISTS’ curated by John Ayscough at Tay Street, Edinburgh: 16 artists working across a range of contemporary practices. Artists exhibiting include Sam Ainsley, Beagles & Ramsay, Sarah Callmus, Kevin Harman, Maggie Hills, Rowan Mace and Chad McCail.
in September 2026, IOTA (Glasgow) welcomes Messenger back for his solo exhibition PLEIN SOUL - showing selected drawings from the past two decades alongside recent sculptural work.
His work has been featured in Glasgow Art Map, The Skinny, The Glasgow Herald, and The List.
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/Edinburgh Printmakers
website: www.tobymessenger.co.uk
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: 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
PLEIN SOUL - Solo show @ IOTA, Glasgow - 09/26
The show pairs new sculptural works with a broad survey of the artist’s 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
‘THANK FUCK FOR ARTISTS’
curated by John Ayscough
Tay Street Gallery, Edinburgh
15 August – 29 August 2026
Text by John Ayscough - https://taystreetgallery.com
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
2008/2009 - Finalist, The Aspect Painting Prize (exhibition at Cork Street, London)
2005 The Glasgow Art Club Fellowship Award
Bibliography etc
07/26 - New Waves at TRANSMISSION
Featured on Glasgow Art Map Journal:
https://www.glasgowartmap.com/new-waves-2/
04/26 - SYSTEMS IN COLLAPSE - Solo show @ Boardroom Committee Room, Govan,
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/
09/23 - Preview of From the Big Splash to the Last Splash at IOTA, The Skinny
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:
O8/26 - Live stream radio slot @ Clydebuilt Radio - DJing on the 1210s: continuous back to back old skool
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.
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