Matthew Ritchie’s "A bridge, a gate, an ocean," 2014, reflects the artist’s long-standing investigation into the abstract forms of informational exchange. The richly layered painted surface is presented as a place where information and visual experimentation collide, conflating representation and abstraction into a fictionalized space. Within these luminous and spectral passages, figures, diagrams, and thoughts seem to emerge from and collapse into a topology of knowledge. The dense mark making at its center crumples in on itself. Overlaid upon this passage is a bold blue gesture, the artist’s version of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Layered atop are a series of small calligraphic marks, Ritchie’s reflection on the very first petroglyphs, which primordial people drew while attempting to trace the universe on a cave wall.

Matthew Ritchie writes, “The universe is an infinitely radiant abyss, eternally emitting information on every frequency. Facing such a comprehensive reordering of our limits, we need to reset our perceptual frameworks at every level.”