Jim Ricks Explained

Jim Ricks
Birth Place:	San Francisco, California, United States
Nationality:	United States, Ireland
Alma Mater:	California College of the Arts, National University of Ireland, Galway Burren College of Art
Known For:	Poulnabrone Bouncy Dolmen, In Search of the Truth, Carpet Bombing

Jim Ricks is an American–born Irish conceptual artist, writer, and curator. He has exhibited throughout Ireland and internationally, including a number of public art projects.^[1]

Early life and education

Ricks was born in San Francisco, California.^[2] He started painting graffiti in the early 1990s.^[3] He studied photography and graduated from the California College of the Arts (2002), and received a Masters degree from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and Burren College of Art programme (2007).^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]}

Career

Ricks's work utilises appropriation, institutional critique, politics, and humour. He has had solo shows in the United States, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Mexico.^[9]

Ricks was director of 126 Artist-run Gallery from 2007 to 2009, curating a number of shows and organizing exchanges with other artist-run spaces.^[10] With Stephanie Syjuco, he created knock-offs of work at the Frieze Art Fair in London, 2009.^{[11] [12]}

In an ongoing body of work, "Jim Ricks has developed the method of synchro-materialism as a means to consider the territory where art meets capitalism", and he has used this methodology in exhibition, performance, and print since 2010.^{[13] [14]} In 2015 he travelled to Afghanistan to make Carpet Bombing, a large traditionally made carpet featuring imagery of military drones – an updated version of Afghan's war rugs.^{[15] [16]} He participated in the 2017 Ghetto Biennale, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.^[17]

Public projects

• Poulnabrone Bouncy Dolmen is a large inflatable sculpture designed for people to interact with and play on.^{[18] [7]} It is a twice-the-size replica of a 6,000-year-old megalithic portal tomb, the Poulnabrone Dolmen situated in The Burren, County Clare. It traveled to venues around the Aughty Region of County Galway in June 2011 and was a Galway County Council project.^{[19] [20]} Cristín Leach of The Sunday Times wrote:

  "We need to start thinking more creatively about public art. Jim Ricks has. Poulnabrone Bouncy Dolmen... is a commentary on our past, our present, the concept of “brand Ireland” and the very idea of public art; and everyone is invited to bounce. A temporary, movable, witty, interactive, contemporary public artwork we are all invited to play with? [Alice] Maher has endorsed it as “the best public art piece...ever”. She might just be right."^[21]

  The piece was also shown alongside Jeremy Deller's 2012 inflatable Stonehenge, Sacrilege, in Belfast,^[22] and was featured in the Royal Hibernian Academy exhibition Futures 12.^[23]
• Ricks is working on the long-term, global public art project In Search of the Truth (or En Busca de la Verdad). It is a collaboration with Ryan Alexiev, Hank Willis Thomas .^{[24] [25] [26]} The New York Times writes: "The “Truth Booth,” a roving, inflatable creation, in the shape of a cartoon word bubble with "TRUTH" in bold letters on its side, serves as a video confessional. Visitors are asked to sit inside and finish the politically and metaphysically loaded sentence that begins, "The truth is …"".^[27] The project has travelled Ireland, Afghanistan, South Africa, Australia, the United States, and Mexico,^{[28] [29]} recording and then exhibiting the thoughts of many people on the subject of truth in several countries.^{[30] [31] [32]}
• Life's a Beach (Art imitates life), Gable end mural responding to the political Murals in Northern Ireland, Abercorn Rd., Derry, Northern Ireland, April 2016^[33]
• Sesiones Publicas, San Agustín, La Lisa, Cuba, a LASA project, August 2017.^[34]

Museum projects

Ricks was invited to participate in a 2 year project called Sleepwalkers (2012–15) at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. He was one of six artists invited to use the museum's resources, in an "unusual experiment in exhibition production".^[35] Ricks's contributions included a tribute to Richard Hamilton (artist), unauthorized exhibitions, his solo show: Bubblewrap Game: Hugh Lane, 2013 – 14, and a closing event which included James Barry in 2014.^{[36] [37]} Aidan Dunne of the Irish Times describes Ricks's participation as a "curatorial process of selection and validation, making a museum within the museum comprising works from the real collection, artworks borrowed from elsewhere, non-art objects from flea markets and a commissioned copy of an Ed Ruscha painting."

He exhibited at the Trotsky Museum in Mexico City in 2022.

Solo exhibitions

• 2010 – Synchromaterialism, Pallas Contemporary Projects, Dublin, Ireland^[2]
• 2013–2014 – Bubble Wrap Game: The Hugh Lane, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, Ireland^[38]
• 2015 – Alien Invader Super Baby (Synchromaterialism IV) Onomatopee, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
• 2016–2017 – Centro de Ontología Nacional, Casa Maauad, Mexico City, Mexico^[39]
• 2018 – Museo Ambulante Sebastián, Mexico City, Mexico^[40]
• 2020 – Así Luce la Democracia | This is What Democracy Looks Like, Galeria Daniela Elbahara, Mexico City, Mexico^{[41] [42]}
• 2021–2022 – El camino a París y Londres pasa por las aldeas de Afganistán, Leon Trotsky Museum, Mexico City^[43]

Bibliography

• Ricks, Jim (Editor), Artist-run democracy: sustaining a model, 15 years of 126 gallery, Eindhoven: Onomatopee, 2022. ISBN 9789493148734^[44]
• de Búrca, Ella, Michaële Cutaya, Jim Ricks. IRLDADA: 201916. Mexico City: Black Crown Press, 2019. ^[45]
• Ricks, Jim. Alien Invader Super Baby (Synchromaterialism VI). Eindhoven: Onomatopee, 2018.
• Packer, Matt, Declan Long, and Jim Ricks. "Here Comes The Summer", Derry: Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry, 2017.
• Bossan, Enrico. 2016 an image of Ireland : contemporary artists from Ireland. Crocetta del Montello: Antiga edizioni, 2016.
• Edited by Michael Dempsey and Logan Sisley. Sleepwalkers. Dublin: Hugh Lane Gallery and Ridinghouse, 2015.

See also

• Conceptual art
• Appropriation
• Post-Internet
• Gesamtkunstwerk
• Synchromysticism

External links

• Official website
• Shower of Kunst – art writing

Notes and References

1. Web site: Future Artist-Maker Labs. 2019-12-02. futureartistmakers.org.
2. Web site: Ricks takes art to a new form. 2010-10-28. The Clare Champion. en-GB. 2019-11-29.
3. Web site: Graffiti warfare. Chen. Wei-Huan. Journal & Courier. en. 2020-05-25.
4. News: The Poulnabrone Bouncy Dolmen. publicart. 26 September 2018.
5. News: Ricks takes art to a new form. Rainsford. John. 28 October 2010. The Clare Champion. 26 September 2018.
6. News: Working in tandem from across the divide. 14 March 2013. The Clare Champion. 26 September 2018.
7. News: Sleepwalkers: Jim Ricks – Bubblewrap Game: Hugh Lane. 31 October 2013. hughlane. 26 September 2018.
8. Web site: CCA alums at the heart of public art in NYC . 2022-04-05 . CCA . en-US.
9. Web site: 2018-10-08. Proyecto interactivo mundial de arte "En Busca de la Verdad" llega a la Plaza de la Democracia en Puebla - Puebla - Cultura. 2020-11-22. La Jornada de Oriente. es-ES.
10. Web site: 2013-04-06. Circa Art Magazine - Rayne Booth's blog - The year of the exchange (Friday 1 May 2009). 2020-11-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20130406193044/http://www.recirca.com/cgi-bin/mysql/show_item.cgi?post_id=4832&type=rbblog&ps=publish. 6 April 2013.
11. News: Mahoney. Donald. The Art of Imitation. 26 September 2018. The Irish Times. 23 October 2009.
12. News: Syjuco. Stephanie. Frieze-ing in London (pt 2): postface. 26 September 2018. SFMOMA. 8 November 2009.
13. News: Jim Ricks—Synchromaterialism. 14 December 2018.
14. News: ALIEN INVADER SUPER BABY (SYNCHROMATERIALISM IV). 14 December 2018.
15. News: Salomone. Andrew. This Handmade Rug Is a Drone Survival Guide. 26 September 2018. The Creators Project. 23 August 2016.
16. Web site: Despite its flaws, 'Age of Terror: Art since 9/11' is a timely reflection of artists' responses to conflict - DesignCurial. 2021-01-26. www.designcurial.com.
17. News: 8 August 2017. Fifth Edition of Ghetto Biennale Announces Participating Artists. Artforum. 17 December 2018.
18. News: Siggins. Lorna. 28 August 2010. 'Bouncy dolmen' goes on show. The Irish Times. 26 September 2018.
19. News: 19 August 2010. Bouncy megalith comes to the Aughtys. The Clare Champion. 26 September 2018.
20. News: Higgins. Charlotte. Glaswegian shoes come off for bouncy Stonehenge. 26 September 2018. The Guardian. 2 May 2012.
21. News: Leach . Cristín . Let's hear it for the still, beating heart of our artistic landscape . . 5 June 2011.
22. Murphy. Liz. 18 May 2012. Karla, Jeremy and Margaret (my Mum). A-N Magazine.
    1. 90, June 2012
    . 30. Issuu.
23. News: Bouncy Tomb Tours Ireland. 26 September 2018. Make.
24. Web site: IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH CAUSE COLLECTIVE.
25. Web site: In Search of the Truth.
26. Web site: Jim Ricks. 2019-11-29. artnet.com.
27. Randy Kennedy. Political Art in a Fractious Election Year "The New York Times", 17 July 2016
28. News: 8 May 2016. Cause Collective: In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth). Public Art Fund. 26 September 2018.
29. News: Corcoran. Georgia. April 30, 2014. To tell the Truth. Visual Artists' News Sheet.
30. News: Paul. Laster. Art Basel Visitors Tell All in Hank Willis Thomas' 'Truth Booth'. 26 September 2018. The Observer. 12 August 2014.
31. News: In Search of the Truth: The Truth Booth by Cause Collective. 26 September 2018. Bomb. 22 November 2013.
32. News: In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth). 26 September 2018. Galway International Arts Festival. 24 July 2011.
33. News: Quinn. Andrew . Abercorn Road Mural Unveiled. 26 September 2018. Derry Journal. 6 May 2016.
34. Web site: Jim Ricks (Estados Unidos/Irlanda/México). LASA. 11 August 2017.
35. News: Sleepwalkers: Production as Process. 14 December 2018 .
36. Web site: Sleepwalkers. 2020-11-28. Sleepwalkers. en.
37. Edited by Dempsey, Michael, and Logan Sisley. ‘’Sleepwalkers’’. Dublin: Hugh Lane Gallery and Ridinghouse, 2015.
38. News: Sleepwalkers: Artistic experiments in biting the hand that feeds. Dunne. Aidan. The Irish Times. en. 2019-11-29.
39. Web site: MutualArt.com - The Web's Largest Art Information Service.. 2020-11-22. www.mutualart.com. en.
40. Web site: Jim Ricks reinterpreta a Sebastián. 28 May 2018. es. 2019-03-11.
41. Web site: Mexico City roundup - Features - art-agenda. www.art-agenda.com. en. 2020-03-14.
42. Web site: Así luce la democracia: la exposición de Jim Ricks en la galería Daniela Elbahara. revistacodigo.com. es. 2020-03-14.
43. Web site: Museos . De . Entrevista Los caminos de la verdad de Jim Ricks . 2022-03-22 . De Museos . es-MX.
44. Web site: Artist-run democracy: sustaining a model Onomatopee . 2022-03-04 . www.onomatopee.net.
45. Book: Irldada: 201916. Ricks. Jim. Cutaya. Michaële. Búrca. Ella de. 2019-09-21. Black Crown Press. 9780578546940. en.