RICKY SWALLOW

Ricky Swallow transforms familiar objects and materials into precise, mysterious bronze sculptures that challenge ordinary perceptions of space, mass, and colour. This new group of works includes forms—among them several apparent readymades—that have accompanied the artist, whether literally or figuratively, for extended periods of time, fostering increased intimacy and a pointed, personally resonant surrealism. This becomes particularly clear in a wall-based sculpture produced from a cast of a long, twisting length of rope. The rope has been gathered into the silhouette of a stair stringer, a template used by builders to facilitate the construction of stairways, and therefore to negotiate a transition from flatness to dimensionality. Painted an off-white so that it resembles real rope, the work has a corporeal, organic feel. It also functions as a kind of linear drawing as the eye attempts to follow the course of the rope throughout the total shape. The play between two and three dimensions suffuses the work at every level, from concept to meticulous execution to uncanny experience.

Concurrent with BORROWED SCULPTURES, the gallery will present a solo exhibition of Doyle Lane’s iconic weed pots curated by Swallow.

Ricky Swallow (b. 1974, San Remo, Australia; lives and works in Los Angeles) has been the subject of exhibitions at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California (2012, with Lesley Vance); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2007); Kunsthalle Wien (2007); MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York (2006); and the Australian Pavilion, 51^st Venice Biennale (2005). Recent group exhibitions include In Quest of Beauty: Assemblage in the Ahmanson Collection, Ahmanson Gallery, Irvine, California (2019); 99 Cents or Less, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2017); L’esprit du Bauhaus, l’objet en question, Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris (2016); Made in L.A. 2014, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2014); and Whitney Biennial 2014, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Swallow’s work is in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, among other museums.