John Rainey

John Rainey


John Rainey’s work explores themes of technology, artifice and the human figure. Using a combination of physical and digital methods, including ceramic casting and 3D printing technologies, his sculptural process moves between the virtual and material worlds. Through this faceted approach to production, Rainey’s sculptures probe the development of human representation within digital environments, often referencing themes of visibility and the unprecedented motivation for self-imaging and identity-curating that emerges increasingly from online communication platforms.

Rainey’s sculptures present the plasticity of this digital culture through a number of methods. He works on a shifting physical scale, somewhere between the monumental and the domestic, reflecting fluctuating boundaries between public and private life. Simultaneous references to - and deviations from - classical aesthetics serve to confuse a sense of time and certainty. Saturated colour, a sense of material indeterminacy and exaggerated corporeal forms set a tone that is unsettling yet familiar. 

Biography

John Rainey (b. 1985) is sculptor based in Belfast. His work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at: Golden Thread Gallery Project Space, Belfast (2016) and Marsden Woo Gallery Project Space, London (2013). Selected group exhibitions include: EVA International, Hunt Museum and Limerick City Art Gallery, Limerick (2018); Sans les Mains, Fondation Bernardaud, Limoges (2018); Dissolving Histories, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2017); and Less + More, Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin (2015). In 2018 he was awarded the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Fellowship at the British School at Rome.

john.rainey@network.rca.ac.uk
www.johnrainey.co.uk