John Rainey Northern Irish, b. 1985

John Rainey is a Northern Irish sculptor who primarily works in parian porcelain and, more recently, in stone. His practice blends advanced digital technologies with meticulous craftsmanship. Rainey's work is partly informed by the rise of virtual identities and the ways we present ourselves online. His sculptures often explore the tension between appearance and reality, transforming familiar forms—often with classical references—into objects of illusion, disruption, and ambiguity. Materials are coaxed into behaving in ways that disrupt our expectations: porcelain masquerades as silicone, silicone as porcelain, and forms that we recognize as decorative and static, mutate and sprout bodily appendages. Consequently, his sculptures hint at the plasticity of digital culture and its ability to challenge the natural order of things—they are alien, yet familiar enough to unsettle.

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2012, John Rainey has undertaken residencies at the Digital Stone Project Residency, Gramolazzo, Italy, the British School at Rome, and Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Naughton Gallery, Belfast, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, Berg Gallery, Stockholm and Marsden Woo Gallery Project Space, London. Previous group exhibitions include EVA International – Ireland’s Biennal, Limerick, the Ceramics Biennal, Stoke-on-Trent, Fondation Bernardaud, Limoges, Hunt Museum, Limerick, Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin, and COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London. His works are included in public collections such as the National Collection of Ireland, Crawford Gallery of Art, Cork, the UK Government Art Collection, Ulster Museum, Belfast, and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Collection.