river smith Greater Manchester, United Kingdom

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River Smith (b.1993) is a Manchester-based contemporary artist working across sculpture, installation, drawing and painting. Drawing on autistic perception and traumatic childhood experiences, their practice explores sensory experience, interpersonal connection, childhood and play through tactile, often interactive objects and environments.

My practice is directly shaped by my autistic experience of the world, exploring the relationship between sensory experience, interpersonal connection and traumatic childhoods. I make sculptures, installations and paintings as a way of understanding: painting explores colour, texture and sensation; drawing investigates form, scale and mechanics; and harvested scrap materials allow each work to develop organically. My methodology is rooted in understanding through play, touch and childlike curiosity. In my interactive sculptural performance practise I create odd, tactile objects that ask audiences to engage through the same process that formed them: to understand them, they must play too.

I hold an MA Fine Art with Distinction from Manchester School of Art (2024) and a BA (Hons) Fine Art from Liverpool School of Art and Design (2016). My first large-scale sculptural performance piece, The Act of Experiencing Fear (2024), marked an important development toward my current interactive sculptural practice. I have built a professional practise participating in group shows and residencies both across the UK and internationally, exhibiting at venues and projects including Manchester Open, Islington Mill, Hadrian's Wall Art Trail, Gallery Grounds, and The Holden Gallery. In August 2025 a two month residency at Prisma Estudio, Lisbon produced 8 works, funded by an Eaton Fund Grant. These works were showcased in my first solo show “Hold My Hand”, in Lisbon. I am currently working on a new series of painting and sculptures in my studio at Cakebread Workshop, Manchester.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS Coming of Age, Salutation, Manchester, UK (2026) / Portrait Online, No. 35 Gallery, Virtual (2026) / Beam Me Up, Islington Mill, Manchester, UK (2026) / Hold My Hand, Prisma Studio, Lisbon, Portugal  SOLO  (2025) / Hadrian’s Wall Art Trail, Field Shelter Gallery, Hadrians Wall, UK  (2025) / Residency Showcase, Prisma Studio, Lisbon, Portugal  (2025) / Protest & Pride - Art as Resistance, The Mill Gallery, Leeds, UK  (2025) / Soft Territories, Pup and Tiger, Canterbury, UK  (2025) / Artivist, Gallery Grounds, Southhampton, UK  (2025) / I See You, Levenshulme Old Library, Manchester, UK  (2024) / Emerging Artists, Art Collide, Digital Exhibition  (2024) / Manchester School of Art MA show, The Holden Gallery, Manchester, UK  (2024) / Open Studios, 70 Oxford Road, Manchester, UK  (2024) / Manchester Open, Home Gallery, Manchester, UK  (2024) / Punk/Jazz, Micklegate Social, York, UK  (2023) / Traces, Kensington, Calgary, Canada  (2018) / Tertium Quid, House on the Hill, New York, USA   (2017) / A September Exhibition, The Mill, New York, USA  (2017) / Liverpool School of Art Degree Show, John Lennon Building, Liverpool, UK  (2016) / 6 maybe 9, John Lennon Building, Liverpool, UK  (2016) / B4*, The Royal Standard, Liverpool, UK  (2016) / Lost, John Lennon Building, Liverpool, UK  (2015) / Wrapped, Bombed out church, Liverpool, UK  (2015) / Amerge, Arch Collective Gallery, London, UK  (2014) / Destination, CFA, Portsmouth, UK  (2014) / Temporary CFA, Portsmouth, UK  (2013)

ADDITIONAL PROFESSIONAL WORK Artist-in-Residence, La Ira de Dios, Buenos Aires, Argentina - Upcoming residency 2026 / Artist-in-Residence, Prisma, Lisbon, Portugal (2025) / Artist-in-Residence, Arts Letters & Numbers Institute, New York, USA (2017) / ‘A Third Thing’ Residency, Arts Letters & Numbers Institute, New York, USA (2017) / Wall mural commission, Viet Shack, Manchester (2020) / S/S web campaign material commission, Red Bag Imports, Canada (2019) / Freelance Content Writer, Artweek Business, London, UK (2016–17) / Communication & Artist Relations Co-cordinator, Artweek Business, London, UK (2016)

EDUCATION MA Fine Art (with distinction) : Manchester School of Art, Manchester, UK (2023–24) / BA (Hons) Fine Art : Liverpool School of Art and Design, Liverpool, UK (2013–16)

AWARDS & GRANTS The Eaton Fund Grant (2025) / Art Collide Emerging Artists’ Award, Finalist (2024) / Hilary Parker Award for Art (2010)

PRESS & PUBLICATION Book illustrations, Everyday Qualitative Analysis, University of Manchester (2026) / Archives in Absence, online (2025) / 101 Contemporary Artists,  7th Edition, Collect Artwork (2024) / Summer Issue, Vol. 47, Collect Artwork (2024) / Changing the Discourse, Zine, Haus a Rest (2024) / Average Art Magazine (2017)

COLLABORATIVE PRACTISE Cakebread Workshop, Manchester, (2024–present) / Sensitif, Calgary, Canada (2018) / Amerge, London, UK (2013)