River Smith

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. This theme is explored through a diverse range of media including sculpture, installation and drawing. Each work often realised with various modes of making; focus is given to process, form and materiality. Part of what their work attempts to do is to confront the comfortable and soothe the uncomfortable. Central to the work is the question; ‘how can the audience's discomfort be used as a tool to evoke change, understanding, and empathy?’.

MA, Manchester School of Art, 2024
BFA, Fine Art, Liverpool School of Art, 2016


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


RESIDENCIES
Artist-in-Residence, La Ira de Dios, Buenos Aires, Argentina (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)

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, Po...