Sam Messenger’s background includes technical drawing and graphic design, as well as a study of the Fibonacci sequence, the Golden Ratio, and the effects of nature on art. His works are at once scientific and random, organic and generative, addressing endurance and repetition, and the limitations and capabilities of the human hand. In the past, he has combined ink with snow and ice, soaked his paper in river waters and rainstorms, always accepting nature and chance as a medium. Messenger has exhibited alongside artists including Josef Albers, Louise Bourgeois, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Jackson Pollock, Mickalene Thomas, and Sol LeWitt, among others. He is in the permanent collections of the British Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Williams College Museum of Art; and the RISD Museum.
Messenger received his M.A. at the Royal College of Art where he was awarded the Parallel Prize in 2005. Selected group exhibitions include Abstract Drawing, curated by Richard Deacon at the Drawing Room, London (2014) ; Line: Making the Mark MFA Houston (2014-15); Now WHAT? at the Norton Museum (2010-11), and Art on Paper since 1960 at the British Museum (2022-23). He lives and works in Weston-super-Mare, England.