April 22 through May 27, 2001

Young Australian artist's first solo-museum exhibition features sculptures and drawings inspired by sci-fi, pop music, art history, the paranormal, and The Planet of the Apes.

The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum is proud to present Ricky Swallow/MATRIX 191 For those who came in late, the artist's first solo-museum show in the U.S. The exhibition, which includes new sculptures and drawings, will open at the museum on Sunday, April 22, and run through Sunday, May 27, 2001.

A cross between a cultural archaeologist and a hobbyist model maker, twenty-six year old Swallow creates meticulously hand-crafted sculptures from a variety of familiar model-making materials, such as balsa wood and synthetic resin. In his early work Swallow also incorporates 1950s and '60s turntables, creating miniature dioramas that rotate between 16 and 78 rpm. These constantly revolving works combine science fiction with the everyday. In one the figures of tiny scientists gaze through telescopes at meteorites crashed to earth, while another shows a child thrown from his BMX bike laying sprawled face down beside it. A third work features a group of hostile chimpanzees holding humans hostage at gunpoint.

Ricky Swallow/MATRIX 191 For those who came in late will include a new series of watercolor drawings inspired by the 1970s t.v. science fiction show The Planet of the Apes. Also featured will be a meticulous 1:1 scale model of Swallow's own Apple PowerBook, carved from balsawood, and a pair of tennis shoes made from board, paper, and glue. Regardless of scale, craftsmanship predominates in Swallow's work. Other works in this exhibition include I Don't Want to Know if You Are Lonely/Harry Feinberg's Communicator, a balsa wood model of the communication device used by the alien to "phone home" in the movie E.T.; We the Sedimentary Ones/Use Your Illusions vol. 1-60, an installation of sixty keyrings, each with a small, multicolored resin human skull attached; and For those who came in late, a human skeleton that appears to rise from (or descend into) the gallery floor.

Public Programs
Artist's Talk
Sunday, April 22, 3:00 p.m.
Swallow will lead a walkthrough of his exhibition, focusing on the relationship between formal and conceptual concerns that define his work.

Gallery Talk
Curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson
Thursday, May 3, 12:15 p.m.
In a talk that will address two strikingly different MATRIX exhibitions, Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson will highlight the sources and inspiration behind Ed Osborn's Vanishing Point (through May 13) and Ricky Swallow's For those who came in late (April 22 - May 27).

About MATRIX
Known for presenting innovative, sometimes challenging work that might be difficult to show in commercial galleries or more traditional museum spaces, the BAM/PFA's 22 year-old MATRIX program demonstrates that art is vital, dynamic, and thought-provoking. In the last two decades, MATRIX has presented more than 180 exhibitions featuring artists such as John Baldessari, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Willem De Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Nan Goldin, Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Nancy Spero, and Andy Warhol. Recent exhibitions have presented work by Shirin Neshat, Doug Aitken, Peter Doig, Tobias Rehberger, and Ernesto Neto. MATRIX not only provides the Bay Area with a schedule of cutting-edge exhibitions, but has also attracted national and international acclaim.