Rachy McEwan is an artist based in London. She studied for her Bachelor of Fine Art: Painting and Printmaking at The Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 2020 with a First Class. Rachy is currently studying a Masters in Material Futures at UAL: Central Saint Martins, working freelance at Print Club London and undertaking an internship at based upon.
Working with a range of media, that provokes all senses - visual, auditory and olfaction - Rachy juxtaposes the natural environment with man-made worlds - fusing multi-sensory experiences with synthetic and evolutionary biology to form bio-fictional landscapes, investigating the artificial and natural systems that question the contemporaneous and intimate relationships between nature, the body and technology and their co-existence within environmental disturbance. She confronts the confusion in the concept of identity and forces us to question where one organism stops and another begins.
Utilising biopolitics of the senses, Rachy challenges traditional approaches to the human sensorium, emphasising olfaction as well as microbial and embodied intelligence. Through her research and “techno-sensual” artistic exploration, Rachy is opening new discourse in the realms of cognition, artificial intelligence and machine learning, introducing concepts of the sensorial ecology of intelligence, the machine microbiome, machine ecosystems, and biological machines. Maintaining a practice focused on co-subjectivity, Rachy’s projects include collaborations with engineers, robots, synthetic and microbiologists, computer scientists, perfumers, bacteria, fungi and lichens.
CV
Work
2023-present Internship, BASED UPON, SOUTH LONDON
2022-Present Studio Technician, Print Club London, East London
2021-22 Film Screening Coordinator, The Glasgow School of Art
2021-22 Workshop Coordinator, Art-Making for Earthly Survival, The Glasgow School of Art
2021-22 Workshop Facilitator, Commingling, Production and Reproduction, The Glasgow School of Art
2021-Present Curator and Events Manager at Box Hub Vennel, Glasgow
2020-22 Social media Coordinator Sustainability in Action Group, The Glasgow School of Art
2017-Present Sales Assistant, End Clothing, Glasgow
Education
2022-24 MA Material Futures, Central Saint Martins, UAL
2018-20 BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting and Printmaking (First Class), The Glasgow School of Art
2017-18 Art Foundation Portfolio Course, Tramway Visual Arts Studio, Glasgow
2016-17 HNC ART AND DESIGN
Residencies / Placements
2020 Athens Residency, funded by The Glasgow School of Art
2020 Modual, University of Arts London Collaborative Digital Workshop
2020 Host of Eco-Virtual Residency
2020 Cel Del Nord, Virtual Residency
2016 Grampus Heritage Placement, Iceland
Press & Achievements
2022 RSA New Contemporaries 2022
2022 20:20 Event, Royal Scottish Academy
2020 One Year after Graduation Talk, The Glasgow School of Art
2014 Lilly Art Gallery Award, Glasgow
Curated Exhibitions & Screenings
2022 Close of Play: Art Making for Earthly Survival, Reid Gallery, Glasgow School of Art
2022 Creating Our Planet, Glasgow Goes Green Festival, Box Hub, North Street, Glasgow
2022 Creating Our Planet, Glasgow Goes Green Festival, The Alchemy Experiment
2022 Creating Our Planet, Glasgow Goes Green Festival Film Screening, The University of Glasgow
2022 No Arrow of Time, Box Hub, North Street, Glasgow
Solo Exhibitions
2020 The Art of Living on a Damaged Planet, 16 Nicolson Street, Glasgow
2019 See Through, Project Space, The Victoria Cafe, Glasgow
2014 Advanced Higher Art Exhibition, Lillie Art Gallery, Glasgow
Group Exhibitions
2023 Disobediant Materials, Central Saint Martins, London
2023 Spontaneous Fermentation, Set Kensington, London
2023 Model Machines x Deep Mind, Lethaby Gallery, Kings Cross, London
2022 Situated Knowledges: Organism, Plantationocene, Bio-Politics, IOTA Studio Gallery, Glasgow
2022 RSA New Contemporaries 2022, The Mound, Edinburgh
2022 Environmental Arts, CCA, Glasgow
2021 When We Have Never Been Human, What Is to Be Done?, Box Hub, Axiom, Glasgow
2021 COP26 Exhibtion, The Salt Space, Glasgow
2021 Graduates x Open House, NCP George Street, Glasgow
2021 Alternative Degree Show, The Pipe Factory, Glasgow
2018 SOUP, Group Exhibition, The Glue Factory, Glasgow
2018 GSA Year 3 Exhibition, The Arches, Lauriston, Glasgow
2018 Test Bed, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
2018 More Is Less, Laurieston Arches, Glasgow
2018 Re-visit, The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow
2016 Raspberry Ripple, Southside, Glasgow
2017 Portfolio Exhibition, Tramway Visual Arts Studio, Glasgow
2016 Portfolio Exhibition, Tramway Visual Arts Studio, Glasgow
2015 Portfolio Exhibition, The 13th Note, Glasgow