Rhys Himsworth

Works by Rhys Himsworth

About

Rhys Himsworth is a Welsh mixed-media artist working in both Wales, UK and Berlin, Germany. With a BA Fine Art (2003) from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and an MA Printmaking (2009) from the Royal College of Art, Himsworth’s practice sits at the intersection of painting, print and digital media. His work has been exhibited across Europe, North America and Asia, and has been part of such as the International Studio and Curatorial Program New York.

Rhys Himsworth’s work attempts to form a discourse around issues of  surveillance, mimesis, simulacrum, and authorship. Rhys Himsworth utilises redundant electronics as his material and medium to work at the junction of analogue and digital media. For the last decade he has hacked, appropriated, and re-assembled various electronic and digital devices to create works and installations that blur the physical and discarnate; documenting a period in history that marks the transition from a temporal orientated experience of the world to an online one. His work explores duality through bringing new life to obsolete machines. Through this, he endeavours to explore what Martin Heidegger refers to as ‘The Essence of Technology,’ with a particular emphasis on communicative and print technologies. Information from these sources is then often used to generate a physical outcome whereby the viewer is confronted with, and often part of, a complex informational experience. His work halts the global cycle of electronic waste by transmuting them into the base of his pieces. His romantic natural landscape vistas printed over an abrasive texture of electronic waste juxtapose the ethereal beauty of the environment with the damaging effects of a fast-paced consumerist society.

Vitae

Lives and Works in Berlin, Germany and Pembrokeshire, Wales

  • 2007-2009

    Royal College of Art- MA (RCA)- Printmaking

    2000-2003

    Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design- BA Honors Fine Art

    1999-2000

    Carmarthenshire College of Technology and Art- Foundation Diploma in Arts and Design

  • 2022

    Editions, BBA Gallery, Berlin, Germany

    Renata Kudlacek and Rhys Himsworth, ART MUC, Munich, Germany

    On Water and Plants, Kunsthalle Rostock, Germany

    Hereafter, BBA Gallery, Berlin, Germany (solo show)

    Renata Kudlacek and Rhys Himsworth, Contemporary Showroom, Berlin, Germany

    2021

    New Silk Roads, Pada Galerie, Lisbon, Portugal (solo show)

    Topographies of Decline, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (solo show)

    2019

    Hosting: On Symbionts, Parasites and Other Relations, Interiors to Being, Berlin, Germany

    What We Don't Have We Can Create, Galerie Pada, Lisbon, Portugal

    2018

    The Gnostic Autotroph, CICA Museum, Seoul, South Korea (solo show)

    Everything Flows, Takt Gallery, Berlin, Germany

    2017

    Form (Force), VCUQatar Gallery, Doha, Qatar

    International Exhibition on Conceptual Art, CICA Museum, Seoul, Korea

    2016

    Independent Music Video and Sound Art, CICA Museum, Seoul, Korea

    2015

    Artist Inventor, Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S

    India Art Fair, New Dehli, India

    2014

    ‘dRAW’, Black Swan Arts Center, Frome, UK

    Out Of/In Countenance. Stainless Gallery, New Delhi, India

    2013

    Standalone Tools, Katara Art Center, Doha, Qatar (solo show)

    United Art Fair, Delhi, September 2013, group show

    Tasmeem Doha: Hybrid Making, Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar

    2012

    Entropy, VCUQatar, Doha, Qatar, (solo show)

    2011

    Up and Coming: New Printmaker Make Their Mark, Hunterdon Museum, New Jersey, U.S

    Locws International, National Museum of Wales, Swansea,

    2010

    Royal Academy Summer Show, London, UK

    Avatar, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA, U.S (two person show)

    Enquire Within Upon Everything, Reference Gallery, Richmond, VA, U.S (solo show)

    2009

    Electronic Visualization and the Arts, Royal Computer Society, London, UK

    Royal Academy Summer Show, London

    Royal College of Art Degree Show, London

    Man Group Drawing Prize, Royal College of Art, London

    Bandstand, Café Gallery Projects, Bermondsey, London

    Up, Down, Left, Left, Right, Right, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London

    Originals, Mall Galleries, London

    2008

    Factory, James Taylor Gallery, London

    Secrets 2008, Royal College of Art, London

    Sorry, All Sold Out, New Cross, London

    Systems and Patterns, Whitechapel Gallery Project Space, London, UK

    Who’s Afraid of the Dark, Imperial Works, London

  • 2020

    Wales Arts International Award

    2018

    VCU Presidential Research Quest Award

    2014

    Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP)- Qatar National Research Fund

    2012

    National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) Award- Qatar National Research Fund

    2009

    Conran Foundation Award

    Land Securities Prize

    R.K. Burt Prize

    Deutsche Bank Award- Runner Up

    2008

    20:21 Prize- Runner Up

  • 2021

    Painting, Photography, and the Digital: Crossing the Borders of the Mediums

    Cambridge Scholars Publishing

    2019

    Fanoon: Center for Printmedia Research, Hi-Lights 2012-2018, VCUQatar Press

    2018

    CICA: Art Now, CICA Press

    2016

    Art and Medicine, VCUQatar Press

    2015

    Printmaking: A Complete Guide To Materials and Processes, Laurence King Publishing

    2014

    The Art Souq, VCUQatar Press

  • 2021

    Painting, Photography, and the Digital: Crossing the Borders of the Mediums University of Derby, UK

    2019

    Fanoon: Highlights- 2012-2019, Panel Chair VCU Qatar, Doha, Qatar

    Hosting: On Symbionts, Parasites and Other Relations, Interiors to Being, Berlin, Germany

    Art Teleported Symposium, Brooklyn, New York

    2018

    New Media Art and Public Art International Symposium, Korean Fine Arts Association, Sungkyul University Seoul, South Korea

    Shifting Sands: Emerging Frontiers in the Globalized Landscape, Southern Graphics Council International Panel, Chair Las Vegas, Nevada, US

    2017

    ⌘+Shift+N- Strategies of Resistance in Times of Global Flux, Southern Graphics Council International Panel, Chair Atlanta, Georgia, US

    2016

    An Examination of Artists Communities in an International Context, Part of the panel discussion ‘Art Happens’: New Models for DIY Initiatives’, Curated by Reni Gower, College Arts Association Conference, Washington DC

    Contested Spaces of the Medical Body in the Islamic Art World, Poster Presentation, College Arts Association Conference, Washington DC

    2014

    Art in Doha, Past, Present, Future, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar

    A Comparative Look at Artists Communities Around the World, Presentation at the 9th International Conference on The Arts in Society: The Lives of Art, Rome, Italy

    Error 404://, Visiting Artists Presentation at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, U.S

    The Art Souq, Presentation at the Specters of Evaluation: Rethinking Art/Community/Value Conference, Melbourne, Australia

    Designing an Artists Studio Complex in Qatar, Presentation at the 8th International Conference on Design Principles and Practices: Design as Collective intelligence, Vancouver, Canada

    2013

    Visiting Artists Presentation at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

    2010

    Fast Media/ Slow Knowledge

    Panel Discussion, Southern Graphics Council, Philadelphia, U.S

    2009

    Electronic Visualization and the Arts

    Royal Computer Society, London, U.K

  • 2020

    Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany

    2019

    Pada, Lisbon, Portugal

    2018

    Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin, Germany

    2017

    International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York, US

    2016

    Picture Berlin Kunst Academy, Berlin, Germany

    2013

    Virginia Center for Creative Arts, U.S

    2009-2010

    Plant Zero Fellowship, Virginia Commonwealth University, U.S

  • 2015

    Visiting Lecturer at Weill Cornell Medical College, Qatar campus

    2014

    Visiting Artist at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, U.S

    2013

    Visiting Artist at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

    2009

    Visiting Artist at Virginia Commonwealth University

    2008

    Visiting Artist at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design

    Visiting Artist at Hertfordshire University

Exhibitions