Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 6, 2026

Jim Ricks

Jim Ricks is an American conceptual artist, writer, and curator. He has exhibited internationally, including public art projects.

Last revised
Jul 6, 2026
Read time
≈ 7 min
Length
1,670 w
Citations
63
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Jim Ricks
Born
San Francisco, California, United States
Alma materCalifornia College of the Arts,
National University of Ireland, Galway
Burren College of Art
Known forPoulnabrone Bouncy Dolmen, In Search of the Truth, Carpet Bombing
Websitejimricks.info

Jim Ricks is an American conceptual artist, writer, and curator. He has exhibited internationally, including public art projects.12

Early life and education

Ricks was born in San Francisco, California.3 He started painting graffiti in the early 1990s.4 He studied photography at the California College of the Arts (2002), and received a Masters from the National University of Ireland, Galway/Burren College of Art programme (2007).56789

Career

Drone imagery incorporated into the traditional method of Afghan carpet making.
Drone imagery incorporated into the traditional method of Afghan carpet making, shown at the Imperial War Museum 2017. source ↗
Poulnabrone Bouncy Dolmen, County Clare, Ireland, 2011
"Poulnabrone Bouncy Dolmen", County Clare, Ireland, 2011 source ↗
Diptych from a 2016 exhibition in Mexico City. source ↗

Ricks utilises appropriation, institutional critique, politics, and humour.310 He has had solo shows in the United States, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Mexico.11

Ricks was a director of 126 Artist-run Gallery from 2007 to 2009, curating and working with artist-run spaces.12 Under Stephanie Syjuco, he created knock-offs of work at the Frieze Art Fair in London, 2009.1314

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 since 2010.1516 In 2015, in Afghanistan, he made Carpet Bombing, a traditionally fabricated carpet with military drones imagery – an update of Afghan's war rugs.1718 He participated in the 2017 Ghetto Biennale, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.19

Public projects

  • Poulnabrone Bouncy Dolmen is a large inflatable sculpture designed to play on.208 It is a double-size replica of the Poulnabrone Dolmen in The Burren. It has traveled around Ireland since June 2011.2122 Cristín Leach of The Sunday Times wrote:

    "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."23

    It was shown with Jeremy Deller's 2012 inflatable Stonehenge in Belfast,2224 and in the Royal Hibernian Academy.5256
  • Ricks worked on the global public art project In Search of the Truth (or En Busca de la Verdad ) with Ryan Alexiev, Hank Willis Thomas .262728 The New York Times writes: "The "Truth Booth"... 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 ..."".29 The project has travelled Ireland, Afghanistan, South Africa, Australia, the United States, and Mexico,3031 recording and then exhibiting the thoughts of many people on the subject of truth in several countries.323334
  • Life's a Beach (Art imitates life), Gable end mural responding to the political Murals in Northern Ireland, Abercorn Rd., Derry, Northern Ireland, April 201635
  • Sesiones Publicas, San Agustín, La Lisa, Cuba, a LASA project, August 2017.36

Museum projects

Ricks was involved in Sleepwalkers (2012–15), at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. Artists were invited to an "unusual experiment in exhibition production".37 This included an unauthorised exhibition, an open call,38 a solo show (Bubblewrap Game: Hugh Lane),39 and closing performances.40 Aidan Dunne of the Irish Times describes Ricks's offerings as a "a museum within the museum"10 During the programme, he also included works by Richard Hamilton (artist), James Barry, Jeremy Deller, Gerard Dillon, Robert Ballagh, fr:Raphaël_Zarka, and James Hanley.4142

Ricks was part of Age of Terror: Art since 9/11 at the Imperial War Museum, London, 2018–19.43

He exhibited work made in Afghanistan with Ryan Alexiev, Hank Willis Thomas, and Najeebullah Najeeb at the Trotsky Museum in Mexico City in 2022.4445

Solo exhibitions

  • 2010 – Synchromaterialism, Pallas Contemporary Projects, Dublin, Ireland153
  • 2013–2014 – Bubble Wrap Game: The Hugh Lane, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, Ireland810
  • 2015 – Alien Invader Super Baby (Synchromaterialism IV) Onomatopee, Eindhoven, The Netherlands16
  • 2016–2017 – Centro de Ontología Nacional, Casa Maauad, Mexico City, Mexico46
  • 2018 – Museo Ambulante Sebastián, Mexico City, Mexico47
  • 2020 – Así Luce la Democracia | This is What Democracy Looks Like, Galeria Daniela Elbahara, Mexico City, Mexico248
  • 2021–2022 – El camino a París y Londres pasa por las aldeas de Afganistán, Leon Trotsky Museum, Mexico City49
Bibliography

Bibliography

  • Ricks, Jim (Editor), Artist-run democracy: sustaining a model, 15 years of 126 gallery, Eindhoven: Onomatopee, 2022. ISBN 978949314873450
  • de Búrca, Ella, Michaële Cutaya, Jim Ricks. IRLDADA: 201916. Mexico City: Black Crown Press, 2019. ISBN 9780578546940 51
  • Ricks, Jim. Alien Invader Super Baby (Synchromaterialism VI). Eindhoven: Onomatopee, 2018. ISBN 9789491677755
  • 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. ISBN 9788899657185
  • Edited by Michael Dempsey and Logan Sisley. Sleepwalkers. Dublin: Hugh Lane Gallery and Ridinghouse, 2015. ISBN 9781905464982
See also

See also

References

References

  1. "Future Artist-Maker Labs". futureartistmakers.org. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  2. "Mexico City roundup - Features - art-agenda". www.art-agenda.com. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  3. "Ricks takes art to a new form". The Clare Champion. 28 October 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  4. Chen, Wei-Huan. "Graffiti warfare". Journal & Courier. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  5. "The Poulnabrone Bouncy Dolmen". publicart. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  6. Rainsford, John (28 October 2010). "Ricks takes art to a new form". The Clare Champion. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  7. "Working in tandem from across the divide". The Clare Champion. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  8. "Sleepwalkers: Jim Ricks – Bubblewrap Game: Hugh Lane". hughlane. 31 October 2013. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  9. "CCA alums at the heart of public art in NYC". CCA. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  10. Dunne, Aidan. "Sleepwalkers: Artistic experiments in biting the hand that feeds". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  11. "Proyecto interactivo mundial de arte "En Busca de la Verdad" llega a la Plaza de la Democracia en Puebla - Puebla - Cultura". La Jornada de Oriente (in European Spanish). 8 October 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  12. "Circa Art Magazine - Rayne Booth's blog - The year of the exchange (Friday 1 May 2009)". 6 April 2013. Archived from the original on 6 April 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  13. Mahoney, Donald (23 October 2009). "The Art of Imitation". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  14. Syjuco, Stephanie (8 November 2009). "Frieze-ing in London (pt 2): postface". SFMOMA. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  15. "Jim Ricks—Synchromaterialism". Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  16. "ALIEN INVADER SUPER BABY (SYNCHROMATERIALISM IV)". Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  17. Salomone, Andrew (23 August 2016). "This Handmade Rug Is a Drone Survival Guide". The Creators Project. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  18. "Despite its flaws, 'Age of Terror: Art since 9/11' is a timely reflection of artists' responses to conflict - DesignCurial". www.designcurial.com. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  19. "Fifth Edition of Ghetto Biennale Announces Participating Artists". Artforum. 8 August 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  20. Siggins, Lorna (28 August 2010). "'Bouncy dolmen' goes on show". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  21. "Bouncy megalith comes to the Aughtys". The Clare Champion. 19 August 2010. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  22. Higgins, Charlotte (2 May 2012). "Glaswegian shoes come off for bouncy Stonehenge". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  23. Leach, Cristín (5 June 2011). "Let's hear it for the still, beating heart of our artistic landscape". The Sunday Times.
  24. Murphy, Liz (18 May 2012). "Karla, Jeremy and Margaret (my Mum)". A-N Magazine. #90, June 2012: 30 – via Issuu.
  25. "Bouncy Tomb Tours Ireland". Make. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  26. "IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH | CAUSE COLLECTIVE".
  27. "In Search of the Truth".
  28. "Jim Ricks". artnet.com. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  29. Randy Kennedy. Political Art in a Fractious Election Year "The New York Times", 17 July 2016
  30. "Cause Collective: In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth)". Public Art Fund. 8 May 2016. Archived from the original on 26 September 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  31. Corcoran, Georgia (30 April 2014). "To tell the Truth". Visual Artists' News Sheet.
  32. Paul, Laster (12 August 2014). "Art Basel Visitors Tell All in Hank Willis Thomas' 'Truth Booth'". Observer. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  33. "In Search of the Truth: The Truth Booth by Cause Collective". Bomb. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  34. "In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth)". Galway International Arts Festival. 24 July 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  35. Quinn, Andrew (6 May 2016). "Abercorn Road Mural Unveiled". Derry Journal. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  36. "Jim Ricks (Estados Unidos/Irlanda/México)". LASA. 11 August 2017.
  37. "Sleepwalkers: Production as Process". Archived from the original on 6 February 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  38. "Sleepwalkers: Future Perfect". Hugh Lane. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  39. "Sleepwalkers: Jim Ricks – Bubblewrap Game: Hugh Lane". Hugh Lane. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  40. "Everything must go now". Hugh Lane. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  41. "Sleepwalkers". Sleepwalkers. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  42. Edited by Dempsey, Michael, and Logan Sisley. Sleepwalkers. Dublin: Hugh Lane Gallery and Ridinghouse, 2015. ISBN 9781905464982
  43. Rae, Cormac (21 February 2018). "Despite its flaws, 'Age of Terror: Art since 9/11' is a timely reflection of artists' responses to conflict". DesignCurial. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  44. "EXPOSICIONES". museotrotsky.org.mx. Retrieved 27 April 2025.
  45. Museos, De. "Entrevista | Los caminos de la verdad de Jim Ricks". De Museos (in Mexican Spanish). Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2025.
  46. "MutualArt.com - The Web's Largest Art Information Service". www.mutualart.com. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  47. "Jim Ricks reinterpreta a Sebastián" (in Spanish). 28 May 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  48. "Así luce la democracia: la exposición de Jim Ricks en la galería Daniela Elbahara". revistacodigo.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  49. Museos, De. "Entrevista | Los caminos de la verdad de Jim Ricks". De Museos (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  50. "Artist-run democracy: sustaining a model | Onomatopee". www.onomatopee.net. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  51. Ricks, Jim; Cutaya, Michaële; Búrca, Ella de (21 September 2019). Irldada: 201916. Black Crown Press. ISBN 9780578546940.
External links