diff --git a/R/TileDBArray.R b/R/TileDBArray.R
index bcdea380b6..63a139eb9f 100644
--- a/R/TileDBArray.R
+++ b/R/TileDBArray.R
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
 #' @slot datetimes_as_int64 A logical value
 #' @slot encryption_key A character value
 #' @slot timestamp A POSIXct datetime variable
+#' @slot as.matrix A logical value
 #' @slot ptr External pointer to the underlying implementation
 #' @exportClass tiledb_array
 setClass("tiledb_array",
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@ setClass("tiledb_array",
                       datetimes_as_int64 = "logical",
                       encryption_key = "character",
                       timestamp = "POSIXct",
+                      as.matrix = "logical",
                       ptr = "externalptr"))
 
 #' Constructs a tiledb_array object backed by a persisted tiledb array uri
@@ -78,6 +80,8 @@ setClass("tiledb_array",
 #' in case the array was written with encryption.
 #' @param timestamp optional A POSIXct Datetime value determining where in time the array is
 #' to be openened.
+#' @param as.matrix optional logical switch, defaults to "FALSE"; currently limited to dense
+#' matrices; in the case of multiple attributes in query lists of matrices are returned
 #' @param ctx tiledb_ctx (optional)
 #' @return tiledb_array object
 #' @export
@@ -92,12 +96,17 @@ tiledb_array <- function(uri,
                          datetimes_as_int64 = FALSE,
                          encryption_key = character(),
                          timestamp = as.POSIXct(double(), origin="1970-01-01"),
+                         as.matrix = FALSE,
                          ctx = tiledb_get_context()) {
   query_type = match.arg(query_type)
   if (!is(ctx, "tiledb_ctx"))
     stop("argument ctx must be a tiledb_ctx", call. = FALSE)
   if (missing(uri) || !is.scalar(uri, "character"))
-    stop("argument uri must be a string scalar", call.=FALSE)
+    stop("argument uri must be a string scalar", call. = FALSE)
+  if (as.data.frame && as.matrix)
+    stop("arguments as.data.frame and as.matrix cannot be selected togethers", call. = FALSE)
+  if (isTRUE(is.sparse) && as.matrix)
+    stop("argument as.matrix cannot be selected for sparse arrays", call. = FALSE)
 
   if (length(encryption_key) > 0) {
     if (!is.character(encryption_key))
@@ -139,6 +148,7 @@ tiledb_array <- function(uri,
       datetimes_as_int64 = datetimes_as_int64,
       encryption_key = encryption_key,
       timestamp = timestamp,
+      as.matrix = as.matrix,
       ptr = array_xptr)
 }
 
@@ -199,6 +209,7 @@ setMethod("show", signature = "tiledb_array",
      ,"  datetimes_as_int64 = ", if (object@datetimes_as_int64) "TRUE" else "FALSE", "\n"
      ,"  encryption_key     = ", if (length(object@encryption_key) == 0) "(none)" else "(set)", "\n"
      ,"  timestamp          = ", if (length(object@timestamp) == 0) "(none)" else format(object@timestamp), "\n"
+     ,"  as.matrix          = ", if (object@as.matrix) "TRUE" else "FALSE", "\n"
      ,sep="")
 })
 
@@ -274,6 +285,11 @@ setValidity("tiledb_array", function(object) {
     msg <- c(msg, "The 'timestamp' slot does not contain a POSIXct value.")
   }
 
+  if (!is.logical(object@as.matrix)) {
+    valid <- FALSE
+    msg <- c(msg, "The 'as.matrix' slot does not contain a logical value.")
+  }
+
   if (!is(object@ptr, "externalptr")) {
     valid <- FALSE
     msg <- c(msg, "The 'ptr' slot does not contain an external pointer.")
@@ -347,8 +363,8 @@ setMethod("[", "tiledb_array",
   attrvarnum <- unname(sapply(attrs, function(a) libtiledb_attribute_get_cell_val_num(a@ptr)))
   attrnullable <- unname(sapply(attrs, function(a) libtiledb_attribute_get_nullable(a@ptr)))
 
-  if (length(x@attrs) != 0) {
-    ind <- match(x@attrs, attrnames)
+  if (length(sel) != 0) {
+    ind <- match(sel, attrnames)
     if (length(ind) == 0) {
       stop("Only non-existing columns selected.", call.=FALSE)
     }
@@ -552,15 +568,39 @@ setMethod("[", "tiledb_array",
   res <- data.frame(reslist)[seq_len(resrv),]
   colnames(res) <- allnames
 
-  ## reduce output if extended is false
-  if (!x@extended) {
+  ## reduce output if extended is false, or attrs given
+  if (!x@extended || length(sel) > 0) {
     res <- res[, attrnames]
   }
 
-  if (!x@as.data.frame) {
+  if (!x@as.data.frame && !x@as.matrix) {
     res <- as.list(res)
   }
 
+  if (x@as.matrix) {
+    if (ncol(res) < 3) {
+      message("ignoring as.matrix argument with insufficient result set")
+    } else if (!is.null(i)) {
+      message("case of row selection not supported for accessing as.matrix")
+    } else if (!is.null(j)) {
+      message("case of column selection not supported for accessing as.matrix")
+    } else if (ncol(res) == 3) {
+      mat <- matrix(, nrow=max(res[,1]), ncol=max(res[,2]))
+      mat[ cbind( res[,1], res[,2] ) ] <- res[,3]
+      res <- mat
+    } else {                            # case of ncol > 3
+      k <- ncol(res) - 2
+      lst <- vector(mode = "list", length = k)
+      for (i in seq_len(k)) {
+         mat <- matrix(, nrow=max(res[,1]), ncol=max(res[,2]))
+         mat[ cbind( res[,1], res[,2] ) ] <- res[, 2 + i]
+         lst[[i]] <- mat
+      }
+      names(lst) <- tail(colnames(res), k)
+      res <- lst
+    }
+  }
+
   invisible(res)
 })
 
diff --git a/inst/tinytest/test_dataframe.R b/inst/tinytest/test_dataframe.R
index a859258ee2..e6be3b54b5 100644
--- a/inst/tinytest/test_dataframe.R
+++ b/inst/tinytest/test_dataframe.R
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ expect_equal(irisdf, newdf[,-1])
 arr <- tiledb_array(uri, as.data.frame=TRUE,
                     attrs = c("Petal.Length", "Petal.Width"))
 newdf <- arr[]
-expect_equal(iris[, c("Petal.Length", "Petal.Width")], newdf[,-1])
+expect_equal(iris[, c("Petal.Length", "Petal.Width")], newdf)
 
 
 ## test list
diff --git a/inst/tinytest/test_tiledbarray.R b/inst/tinytest/test_tiledbarray.R
index 0262e9f51d..476dc774a2 100644
--- a/inst/tinytest/test_tiledbarray.R
+++ b/inst/tinytest/test_tiledbarray.R
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ expect_true(length(attrs(arr)) == 0)
 sels <-  c("age", "job", "education", "duration")
 attrs(arr) <- sels
 dat <- arr[]
-expect_equal(colnames(dat), c("__tiledb_rows", sels))
+expect_equal(colnames(dat), sels)
 extended(arr) <- FALSE
 dat <- arr[]
 expect_equal(colnames(dat), sels)
@@ -1023,3 +1023,46 @@ A <- tiledb_array(uri = tmp, as.data.frame=TRUE, timestamp=now2 - 0.5)
 expect_equal(nrow(A[]), 3)
 A <- tiledb_array(uri = tmp, as.data.frame=TRUE, timestamp=now2 + 0.5)
 expect_equal(nrow(A[]), 6)
+
+## as.matrix
+tmp <- tempfile()
+dir.create(tmp)
+## Generate a matrix
+n <- 5L
+k <- 4L
+mat <- matrix(1:(n*k), nrow=n, ncol=k)
+dom <- tiledb_domain(dims = c(tiledb_dim("rows", c(1L, n), n, "INT32"),
+                              tiledb_dim("cols", c(1L, k), k, "INT32")))
+schema <- tiledb_array_schema(dom, attrs=tiledb_attr("vals", type="INT32"))
+tiledb_array_create(tmp, schema)
+arr <- tiledb_array(tmp)
+query_layout(arr) <- "COL_MAJOR"    	# needed if we want column order
+arr[] <- mat                        	# we can write directly
+
+arr2 <- tiledb_array(tmp, as.matrix=TRUE)
+mat2 <- arr2[]
+expect_equal(mat, mat2)                 # check round-turn
+
+## check no double selection
+expect_error(tiledb_array(tmp, as.data.frame=TRUE, as.matrix=TRUE))
+## check normal data.frame return when row col select
+expect_true(is.data.frame(suppressMessages(arr2[1:2,])))
+expect_true(is.data.frame(suppressMessages(arr2[,3])))
+
+arr3 <- tiledb_array(tmp, as.data.frame=TRUE)
+df1 <- arr3[]
+df1$vals2 <- df1$vals * 10
+tmp2 <- tempfile()
+fromDataFrame(df1, tmp2)
+
+## check selecting matrix out of multiple cols
+arr4 <- tiledb_array(tmp2, attrs=c("rows", "cols", "vals2"), as.matrix=TRUE)
+expect_equal(arr4[], 10*mat)
+arr5 <- tiledb_array(tmp2, attrs=c("rows", "cols", "vals"), as.matrix=TRUE)
+expect_equal(arr5[], mat)
+arr6 <- tiledb_array(tmp2, attrs=c("rows", "cols", "vals", "vals2"), as.matrix=TRUE)
+res <- arr6[]
+expect_true(is.list(res))
+expect_equal(length(res), 2L)
+expect_equal(res$vals, mat)
+expect_equal(res$vals2, 10*mat)
diff --git a/man/tiledb_array-class.Rd b/man/tiledb_array-class.Rd
index 97db56d50c..4d271ffcf4 100644
--- a/man/tiledb_array-class.Rd
+++ b/man/tiledb_array-class.Rd
@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ describes the (min,max) pair of ranges for dimension i}
 
 \item{\code{timestamp}}{A POSIXct datetime variable}
 
+\item{\code{as.matrix}}{A logical value}
+
 \item{\code{ptr}}{External pointer to the underlying implementation}
 }}
 
diff --git a/man/tiledb_array.Rd b/man/tiledb_array.Rd
index 5b687477ab..8a708bb47a 100644
--- a/man/tiledb_array.Rd
+++ b/man/tiledb_array.Rd
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ tiledb_array(
   datetimes_as_int64 = FALSE,
   encryption_key = character(),
   timestamp = as.POSIXct(double(), origin = "1970-01-01"),
+  as.matrix = FALSE,
   ctx = tiledb_get_context()
 )
 }
@@ -50,6 +51,9 @@ in case the array was written with encryption.}
 \item{timestamp}{optional A POSIXct Datetime value determining where in time the array is
 to be openened.}
 
+\item{as.matrix}{optional logical switch, defaults to "FALSE"; currently limited to dense
+matrices; in the case of multiple attributes in query lists of matrices are returned}
+
 \item{ctx}{tiledb_ctx (optional)}
 }
 \value{