Ricky Swallow first became known for his meticulously carved realistic wooden sculptures, many in the tradition of still-life motifs and memento mori, but in recent years he has turned to working in bronze.

His sculptures originate with ready-made objects such as clocks, cups, and various cardboard elements, which he recasts in bronze and finishes with patinas that seem more traditionally suited for ceramics, creating a complicated relationship between the original object and its more durable iteration as an art object.

“My work has always essentially been about translation, passing a subject through various processes on the way to a fixed or permanent state, with each different material influencing the creation of new forms...