Lives and works in Manchester
email: river.smith.studio@gmail.com
STATEMENT
A 2024 graduate of the Manchester School of Art MA program, Rivers’ studio practise is focused on our relationships with mental health, our formative childhood experiences, and the impact of trauma on our psyche. It centers on the emotional architectures we inherit and what that means for us. Working across a variety of mediums, River’s practice uses a diverse material language that privileges process, form, and physicality. Rooted in personal experiences and scientific research, River’s work moves beyond individual narrative into a larger inquiry:
How do cycles of harm perpetuate across generations? How do we interrupt them? What systems allow them to exist?
Rather than apportion blame, the work seeks to expose the deeper, often invisible forces that fracture human care and connection.
Ultimately, River’s practice invites audiences into a space where surrender becomes strength — a space where discomfort, vulnerability, and tenderness coexist, creating the conditions for recognition, resilience, and radical empathy.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 I See You, Levenshulme Old Library, Manchester
Emerging Artists, Art Collide, Digital Exhibition
Manchester School of Art MA show, The Holden Gallery, Manchester
Open Studios, 70 Oxford Road, Manchester
Manchester Open, Home Gallery, Manchester
2023 Punk/Jazz, Micklegate Social, York
2018 Traces, Kensington, Calgary
2017 Tertium Quid, House on the Hill, New York
A September Exhibition, The Mill, New York
2016 Liverpool School of Art Degree Show, John Lennon Building, Liverpool
6 maybe 9, John Lennon Building, Liverpool
B4*, The Royal Standard, Liverpool
2015 Lost, John Lennon Building, Liverpool
Wrapped, Bombed out church, Liverpool
2014 Amerge, Arch Collective Gallery, London
Destination, CFA, Portsmouth
2013 Temporary, CFA, Portsmouth
EDUCATION
MA Fine Art, Manchester School of Art, Manchester (2023 - 2024)
BA Fine Art, Liverpool School of Art (2013-2016)
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2024 Art Collide Emerging Artists’ Award, Finalist
2010 Hilary Parker award for Art
RESIDENCIES
2017 Artist-in-Residence, Arts Letters & Numbers Institute, New York
‘A Third Thing’ Residency, Arts Letters & Numbers Institute, New York
PRESS
101 Contemporary Artists, 7th Edition, Collect Artwork, 2024 (book)
Summer Issue, Vol. 47, Collect Artwork, 2024
Changing the discourse, Zine, Haus a Rest, 2024
Average art magazine 2017 (print)
