Artist studios and gallery
7 Water Row, Govan
Glasgow


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Past Exhibitions
2026
Toby Messenger Systems in Collapse2025
Olivia Wiles West Side Story
Catriona Beckett The Guild of Abstraction and Image Making
Anna Lawrence Snail Trail
Sam Della-Valle Big Women Little Men
Ali Farrelly a mean diameter
2024Anna Metzger Teether
John Fletcher Acid Reflux
Scott Leeming Didn’t we have a good time?
Gabriella Day The best parts only
[Studio holders] MEETING 2
Amanda Seibæk & Zane Drees For Satin Bowerbirds
Kate Holford That unquestionable bloom
Amelia Barratt Cool Ground
2023
Anna Metzger, Maya Levy, Alfie Sellers The Ceiling So Far
Kirstie Lackie TV Dinners
[Group] A sense of urgency
[Studio holders] MEETING
Charlie Hodgson Trade Winds
Antonio Parker-Rees & Phoebe Kerr
Niall McCallum Path Users
[Group] World of Wonder
Orla Kane Star face
Jameela Stenheden Gordon-King in jest
Dora Padfield & Liv Fox and now the light is on it
Toby Messenger     Systems in Collapse
11-26 April 2026

Audi Quattro S1 - half scale (2025)
210cm x 90cm x 71cm
Reclaimed timber, plywood, cardboard, polystyrene, plastic, fabric and perspex


Lamborghini Countach - half scale (2025/26)
213cm x 107cm x 58cm
Reclaimed timber, plywood, cardboard, polystyrene, foam, plastic, fabric and perspex

Audi Quattro S1 - half scale (detail)
Installation view
Lamborghini Countach - half scale (detail)


Installation view


For Systems in Collapse Toby Messenger brings two large sculptures into the Boardroom Committee Room gallery. The first is a half scale model of an Audi Quattro S1, made from recycled wood, cardboard, polystyrene packaging, paper, remnants from the artist’s studio (a large former office space with broad windows closely overlooking the M8); detritus pulled from domestic life, a magpie-like collection of useful parts. The second is that of a Lamborghini Countach in canary yellow, its office-paper-bodywork wrapping another interior of carefully positioned recycled materials. Each sculpture betrays Messenger’s eye for detail, his commitment to doing the object justice. Perhaps images of the garage tinkerer come to mind, or the obsessive car enthusiast anticipating their next collectors’ rally. (But who has a garage? And from where does the fuel come?) But despite their self-confessed “lo-fi” style, there is a specificity that resists any urge to not take them seriously. Within their cardboard bellies, their nearly-bucket-seated centres; in their gesture toward whole machines known with such intimacy - out there at rallies, on driveways, on website listings, wishlists, posters, tiny screens, huge screens, encircling the buildings in which we write, read, watch - a sense of regret? of failure? of disillusionment? Something niggles. Perhaps it’s that collapse encircling. It’s certainly The Strait of Hormuz, the horror around which we must bear witness to and resist.

Boardroom Committee Room is not well positioned as a gallery. Up four flights of stairs, it’s hard to reach. It’s hard, therefore, to get sculpture into it. But as a building formerly used (we presume) for semi-industrious manufacturing or storage, we are blessed with a winch system adjacent to the gallery which allows us to lift larger items in through a window. To accompany the exhibition, Messenger commissioned a short film by Mohamed Fahath Abdhullah (below), documenting the great feat of flying the Audi Quattro sculpture up the side of the building and lifting it into place in the gallery. Through this behind the scenes - or if I can indulge - the lifting of the bonnet on the exhibition install, it becomes clear that what this work requires is not a solitary figure toiling devotedly. It requires quite a number of people actually, to get it anywhere, get it off the ground. So this is not disillusionment, or a funerary rite at the end of a long era of abundance. This is collaborative work, a resistance to being dismissed as merely anything: as foolish, unproductive, a tenant; Elsewhere, Other, artist. 

A key contribution to the show comes in the form of Andy Murray’s accompanying exhibition text, “Icarus Deluxe Vintage Cars”, which playfully expresses some of the more idiosyncratic character play that surrounds Messenger’s work. A short gallop into the confessional-catalogue entry of a tragic car auctioneer, the legendary Audi Quattro (or is it??) is brought to life on the moonlit roads of Motherwell. You can download the PDF of the exhibition hand out here.

Boardroom Committee Room would like to thank all involved in helping make this exhibition come together. Take care out there, tinkerers.

– Kate Holford, Curator
April 2026

Filming and editing by Mohamed Fahath Abdhullah
Additional filming by Stephen Robinson



Toby Messenger is a Glasgow-based visual artist whose practice merges drawing, painting, assemblage, and installation. Working primarily with cardboard, recycled wood, and household materials, he constructs scaled replicas of everyday objects—cars, bikes, bedroom DJ rigs—that channel a spirit of DIY ingenuity and cultural critique. Rooted in the aesthetics of rave culture and a nostalgic fascination with the motor car, Messenger’s lo-fi constructions celebrate the studio as a space of making, memory, and quiet resistance. His work draws on the raw energy of Neo-Dada and the readymade, transforming overlooked materials into playful, poignant monuments to a pre-digital world.

Messenger studied Fine Art (Painting) at The Glasgow School of Art and has exhibited across the UK and internationally. In 2024, he was invited to participate in I Hear a New World at Villa Stuck in Munich, curated by Markus and Micha Acher (The Notwist/Alien Disko Records) and Anne Marr. His solo and collaborative projects include DRIVE at PAPPLE, East Lothian; Turning Up in a Tiger Suit at a Techno Party, Glasgow; and, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life at Glasgow Project Room. In 2025 he was artist-in-residence at Shapeero-Murray, where he produced a performative and site specific 1:1 scale sculpture of a Formula 1 car.

Messenger has curated three large group exhibitions under the moniker From the Big Splash to the Last Splash at Terrace, London; IOTA, Glasgow (2023); and SPACE JUNK, Glasgow (2024). In 2001, Messenger played a key role in the organisation and construction of new studio facilities for Glasgow Independent Studios at 48 King Street.


Exhibition Credits:
Exhibition text - Andy Murray
Technical assistance & crate/winch engineer - Keir Blockey Richardson
Filming - Mohamed Fahath Abdhullah
Photography & additional filming - Stephen Robinson
Lead technician - Scott Leeming
Curator - Kate Holford
With thanks from the artist to Jane Mckeown.





© 2026 Boardroom Committee Room CIC - SC754804