Ricky Swallow's best-known sculptures freeze the world in wood. His meticulously hand-carved works look like Dutch still lifes or 17th-century Vanitas paintings, updated for our age. Alongside skulls, bones and fruit he singles out careworn possessions, like a lone battered trainer or an acoustic guitar, and painstakingly chisels them in whole or in part in pale jelutong or limewood. He also works in bronze, casting everything from an old ghetto blaster to pockmarked archery targets, all weathered by the passing of the years. And between these time-consuming projects he makes quick, light watercolours.
Now based in Los Angeles, the 36-year-old Swallow grew up in the Australian coastal town of San Remo. One of his key works is 2003's Killing Time. Included in his 2005 show for Australia's pavilion at the Venice Biennale, this life-size wooden banquet features a bucket of fish, lobster and half-peeled fruit with curling rind. As with all of Swallow's work, it's a riff on the paradoxes of the still life, fixing perishable earthly delights forever and celebrating the joys of being alive while warning that all things must pass. There's a personal story here too: the food he depicts was inspired by childhood memories of fish caught with his father; the table is based on the one in his family home.
While such works reference canonical artists such as Willem Kalf and Chardin, pop music provides another major influence. Last of the Unnatural Acts, an ambitious bronze double statue from 2007, offsets two very different icons. One is based on what is probably the world's most famous wooden sculpture, Donatello's Penitent Magdalene, while the other depicts the Mamas and the Papas songwriter and backing singer John Phillips in his solo incarnation as The Wolf King of LA. Swallow has described his work as an attempt to "fix things against time".
Why we like him: Skulls and skull-shaped things recur in Swallow's work. The Arrangement (2005) is a sinuous carving of a cycling helmet with a serpent slithering through its latticed shell. It elegantly conflates sporting prowess, the dangers of traffic accidents and the physical fragility of the mind.
By the book: Swallow taught himself to carve from a "How to" guide bought in a craft store, Carving Realistic Birds by David Tippey.
Where can I see him? Ricky Swallow is at Modern Art in London until 19 February.