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.
