(they/them)
email: river.smith.studio@gmail.com
@toasted.fishes
"I have autism and the sculptures, installations and paintings I make are directly influenced by how that changes my experience of the world. I am fascinated by the interaction between our sensory experiences, interpersonal relationships and traumatic childhoods. In my sculptural and installation practice, I invite you to come and play with the works. These odd playful objects, made with harvested trash from this little rock of ours, are an open work experiment in emotional regulation.
I make things to understand them. Painting helps me understand the colour, texture and feel of the sculpture. Drawing helps me understand its’ form, scale and mechanics. Harvesting scrap materials changes the direction of the work, naturally and organically. This methodology is led by the idea of understanding through play. Through touch. Through childlike investigative curiosity. The resultant ‘transitional objects’ want you to treat them with the same practise in which they were formed. To understand them, you play too. It is a form of shared connection.
Trauma is the context. Play is the method. Interaction is the mechanism. Connection is the outcome.
BIO
River, (b.1993) is a Manchester-based contemporary artist known for creating playful interactive artworks to design experiences that let people practise connection. A 2024 graduate of the Manchester School of Art MA program, their practice works across sculpture, installation, drawing, and performance. Built from reclaimed materials their sculptural playgrounds invite viewers to physically engage, rather than remain passive observers. Drawing on autistic perception and traumatic childhood experiences, the work uses play as a method of emotional regulation, transforming uncomfortable subjects into shared moments of curiosity, connection and joy.
Their first large-scale sculptural performance piece “The Act Of Experiencing Fear”, (2024) was widely regarded by those in attendance at the MA show. They have built a professional practise participating in group shows and residencies both across the UK and internationally. 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 their first solo show “Hold My Hand”, in Lisbon. They are currently working on a new series of painting and sculptures at their studio in Manchester.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026 Beam me up, this place kinda sucks, Islington Mill, Manchester, UK
2025 Hold My Hand, (Solo Show) Prisma Studio, Lisbon, Portugal
Hadrian’s Wall Art Trail, Field Shelter Gallery, Hadrians Wall, UK
Residency Showcase August + September, Prisma Studio, Lisbon, Portugal
Protest & Pride - Art as Resistance, The Mill Gallery, Leeds, UK
Soft Territories, Pup and Tiger, Canterbury, UK
Artivist, Gallery Grounds, Southhampton, UK
2024 I See You, Levenshulme Old Library, Manchester, UK
Emerging Artists, Art Collide, Digital Exhibition
Manchester School of Art MA show, The Holden Gallery, Manchester, UK
Open Studios, 70 Oxford Road, Manchester, UK
Manchester Open, Home Gallery, Manchester, UK
2023 Punk/Jazz, Micklegate Social, York, UK
2018 Traces, Kensington, Calgary, Canada
2017 Tertium Quid, House on the Hill, New York, USA
A September Exhibition, The Mill, New York, USA
2016 Liverpool School of Art Degree Show, John Lennon Building, Liverpool, UK
6 maybe 9, John Lennon Building, Liverpool, UK
B4*, The Royal Standard, Liverpool, UK
2015 Lost, John Lennon Building, Liverpool, UK
Wrapped, Bombed out church, Liverpool, UK
2014 Amerge, Arch Collective Gallery, London, UK
Destination, CFA, Portsmouth, UK
2013 Temporary, CFA, Portsmouth, UK
EDUCATION
MA Fine Art, Manchester School of Art, Manchester, UK, 2023 – 2024
BA (Hons) Fine Art ; Liverpool School of Art and Design, Liverpool, UK 2013-2016
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2025 The Eaton Fund Grant
2024 Art Collide Emerging Artists’ Award, Finalist
2010 Hilary Parker award for Art
RESIDENCIES
2026 Artist-in-Residence, La Ira de Dios, Buenos Aires, Argentina (upcoming)
2025 Artist-in-Residence, Prisma, Lisbon, Portugal
2017 Artist-in-Residence, Arts Letters & Numbers Institute, New York, USA
‘A Third Thing’ Residency, Arts Letters & Numbers Institute, New York, USA
PRESS
Archives in Absence, https://archivesinabsence.weebly.com/river-smith.html, 2025 (online)
101 Contemporary Artists, 7th Edition, Collect Artwork, 2024 (book)
Summer Issue, Vol. 47, Collect Artwork, 2024 (online + print)
Changing the discourse, Zine, Haus a Rest, 2024 (online + print)
Average art magazine 2017 (print)
COLLECTIVES
2024- Cakebread Workshop, Manchester, UK.
2018 Sensitif, Calgary, Canada
2013 Amerge, London, UK
