About/Exhibitions
“My work often wears armour: it can look raw, strange, even brutal, but beneath it lies a deep longing for softness and intimacy.” GM
Graeme Messer is an artist who moves directly toward what others turn away from — the taboo, the shameful, the shadow. His practice is unashamedly autobiographical, revealing the contradictions at the heart of his lived experience: cruelty alongside compassion, brutality balanced with tenderness.
As a gay man now in his sixties and a foreigner who has lived across cultures, Messer creates from a persistent sense of being both inside and outside — visible yet invisible, accepted yet othered. He transforms this tension into a source of truth, humour, and connection.
A multitude of artists in one, Messer mixes rawness with play, discomfort with vulnerability. Through this shifting balance of tones, he turns the darker corners of the psyche into spaces of recognition and empathy — suggesting that not fitting in can itself become a form of belonging.
EXHIBITIONS
The Disco At The End Of The Universe - GPS Gallery - Soho London - October 2025
Christies London THT Auction - March 2025
Start Art Fair - Kings Cross - October 2024
Bring Me Something Beautiful - 340 King’s Rd - November 2023
Art Pop - Black Kite Studios - December 2022 Curated By Lee Sharrock
Gardens of Earthly Delights - Espacio Gallery - November 2021 Curated by Graeme Messer and Brian Dennis
Our Digital Selves - Kunsmatrix Online Exhibition -May 2021 Curated by Susie Breen
Artistxextinction - Runway Gallery - November-December 2020 Curated by Lee Sharrock and Daniel Syrett
Raft - Kunsmatrix Online Exhibition - November 2020 Curated by Graeme Messer, Susie Breen, Brian Dennis and Jamie Gallagher
What’s the point. - Meinier Gallery - London November 2019
Fluid Berlin - The Ballery Berlin - September 2019 Curated by Georg Meyer-Weil and Jonathan Armour
Art on the Mind - Proud Gallery - June 2019 Curated by Lee Sharrock
Fluid - Espacio Gallery - May 2019
Loyle Carner “Not Waving” album launch exhibition - House of Vans - April 2019
BrOther - Menier Gallery - November 2018
Beefeater Pink Gin promotion installation - September 2018 Curated by by Frankie Shea - MONIKER PROJECTS
That Shadow of a Shadow - The Old Brompton Gallery - June 2018
Looking Glass - Cornell Art Museum, Florida USA November 2017 - February 2018 Curated by Melanie Johanson
Edinburgh Art Fair (Subversion Gallery) - November 2017
Art Around The Child - Charity auction Wigmore St November 2017 Curated by Lee Sharrock
The Other Art Fair - Truman Brewery - October 2017
London Fashion Week “Apartment” exhibition - September 2017
Aberdeen Art Fair (Subversion Gallery) - September 2017
Will I Ever Make It? - Installation comissioned for The Other Art Fair - April 2017
I love this Motherf***er - solo show at The Lights of Soho - November 2016 Curated by Hamish Jenkinson
We R - LGBTQI Exhibition, Espacio Gallery, in association with London Pride - July 2016
Black & White - Art Society of Soho - Black and White Building, Shoreditch - June 2016
HM90 - Art Society of Soho, Black and White Building Shorditch - May 2016
The Other Art Fair, Victoria House - April 2016
The Edge of Ordinary, Espacio Gallery, London - 2-15 November 2015 Curated by Gail Olding
The Other Art Fair, London - 15-18 October 2015
The Art of Love and How to Avoid it (Solo show) The Chocolate Factory - London 2015
Memories in Black and White - Espacio Gallery - 2015 Curated by Carlos DeLins
The Edge of Ordinary, Espacio Gallery - London 2015 Curated by Gail Olding
Salon14, Photofusion - London 2014
Bedales Auction, Paddle8, Online - 2014
Past/Present, The Chocolate Factory - London 2014
Memories, Design Room, - London 2014
Foyer Show, The Chocolate Factory, -London 2013
R.P. Exhibition, Mall Galleries - London 2013 Curated by Alistair Adams Royal Portrait society President
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