Swallow

I love that galleries are drifting back to the West End a decade-or-so after the exodus east. Curious to chart the progress of LA based artist, Ricky Swallow, I passed by the window of Modern Art the other evening where, surprisingly, the show was still open.



Drawing openly on themes from Lucie Rie to Lucio Fontana, these pieces mimic the vernacular of mid-C20 modernism. Here, however, the 'Truth to Materials' mantra is entirely up-ended; what appeared to be makeshift maquettes of corrugated card and paint-sprayed glazes are, on closer inspection, high-spec bronzes.

In a further classicist twist, the works are cast from archer's targets, literally shot-through with arrows. The objects and panels then affect a fragile museological aspect, as though reconstructed from antiquity. With interpretation in tangles, this was one reference too many for me. There's still a little time to decide for yourself though, this handsome show runs until the 19th.

Ricky Swallow
Modern Art
14 Jan - 19 Feb
Tue - Sat, 11:00 - 18:00
23/25 Eastcastle Street
London W1W 8DF

• Make-do Suite, bronze elements, oak table, 2010
• Make-do Suite (detail), bronze, 2010
• Plate 21 (triangle, iron), patinated bronze, 2010