b. London, 1996
Matthew Rimmer is an artist who graduated from painting and printmaking at The Glasgow School of Art in 2018 following a degree show that was selected for the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition in March 2019, where he won the Chalmers-Jervise Prize. Now living and working in Glasgow, he grew up in London where he studied a foundation course at The Royal Drawing School 2014/15.
Currently informing Rimmers practice are; aquariums, aquascaping (the artistic design of aquarium landscapes) and their online subculture. From this, fascination has developed for the idea of separate worlds existing in domestic settings that are subject to human responsibility, and how the eluding nature of aquatic environments emphasises these surreal spaces. His work speaks for the mysteries of our submerged environment, tackling the ethereal experience of interacting with its anthropomorphised form in aquaristics and responding through abstract impressions, creating sculpture, paintings and drawings that seek to break the disciplinary boundaries between the mediums.
In our rapidly changing ecosphere, elementary awareness is vital before we experience the true extent of their power. This is one reason why Rimmer works with water; to deal with it as a material, gaining a better understanding of how it both supports life and poses a danger to it. Rimmer is now embarking on new concepts in relation to this, currently attempting to make aquatic enclosures that benefit the animals within them as much or more than the viewing audience through his environmental sculpture project ‘Biotopes’, which will be developed in the current and upcoming opportunities of exhibiting at The Briggait, GoMA, and Edinburgh Science Festival.
Education
2015 - 2018: BA Painting and Printmaking at
The Glasgow School of Art
2014 - 2015: The Royal Drawing School Foundation Diploma
Publications/Press
GLASGOW TIMES, Glasgow GoMA Youth Group showcase city's new talent 2020
THE SCOTSMAN, Art review: RSA New Contemporaries 2019
GLASS MAGAZINE, Winter Issue 2019
AESTHETICA MAGAZINE, Artists Directory, Issue 86 December/January 2019 (online & print)
HORST UND EDELTRAUT, Online Interview Aquascaper Matthew Rimmer!. November 2018
Exhibitions/Events
Solo:
Aquascaping, 30th - 31st October 2017, Project Space 1, The Art School, Glasgow
Group:
Australian Bush Fire Relief Art Auction, 28th February 2020, The Alchemy experiment, Glasgow
GoMA 'Growth', 14th - 23rd February 2020, The GoMA, Glasgow
Above the Belt, 24th January - 2nd February 2020
Viridescent Epiphyte, 6th December 2019 - 3rd January 2020,
The Briggait, Glasgow
Project Ability's Christmas Show 2019, 23rd November - 21st December 2019
Hoovering (enter the vacuum) 25th
May 2019, secret location, S E London
Feet First Fair 6th-7th April 2019, Biestebroekbis (Brussels) and 0.666 (Oostende)
The RSA New Contemporaries, 9th March - 3rd April 2019, The RSA Galleries, Edinburgh
Degree Show, 2nd - 8th June 2018, The Tontine, The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow.
Friends of the Fanzine. 7th April 2018, The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow
Waterline, 26th March 2018, The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow.
SERIES THREE, 20th - 21st April 2017, The Glue Factory, Glasgow.
Twenty Five Percent Extra, 10th - 12th June 2016, The Laurieston Arches, Glasgow. http://twentyfivepercentextra.com/index2.html
PAT TESTED, 5th - 10th May 2016, The McLellan Galleries, Glasgow.
The Foundation Year, 9th - 13th June 2015, Royal Drawing School, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London.
Awards:
The Chalmers-Jervise Prize, Won at The RSA New Contemporaries 9th March - 3rd April 2019