In the CVAD Gallery: UNT Art Building, Room 160 | 1201 W. Mulberry St., Denton, TX 76201 | Map & Directions
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday: Noon–5 p.m. | Thursday: Noon–8 p.m.
Press Release
Now through Dec. 10, 2021: The CVAD Galleries is delighted to present an engaging new exhibition and public program by internationally renowned New York-based artist Matthew Ritchie (b. 1964).
Oct. 9, 2021, 7 p.m.: "Infinite Movement" live musical performance, a Matthew Ritchie collaboration with the UNT College of Visual Arts and Design + College of Music and Shara Nova, vocalist, My Brightest Diamond.
"Matthew Ritchie: Florilegium" is a multi-layered installation inspired by "Shadow Garden," his forthcoming Art in Public Places commission for the University of North Texas. This exhibition highlights Ritchie’s deep investigation into the history of mapping human knowledge and lived experience using complex systems. As part of his ongoing exploration, Florilegium accentuates the looming presence of the internet and the virtual nature of communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ritchie’s research for this project focused on GANs or generative adversarial networks. A GAN is a machine learning framework in which two computer networks are joined in a competition. By using images as data, the framework creates distinct variations based on similarities and differences. Shifting between many forms of information and exploiting the GAN’s unsettling power to infinitely iterate new forms, Ritchie has created unique, uncanny artworks that echo the current paradox of stasis and change in which we find ourselves. The outcomes suggest both the shadow of the ongoing epidemic and the continuing creative potential of the conditions it imposes.
Ritchie collaborated and co-created an artwork with students from the Topics in Contemporary Art Practice class he co-taught with Stefanie Dlugosz-Acton, director, CVAD Galleries, in Spring 2020. As part of Florilegium, two videos — a co-created GAN artwork from the class and An Artist Lecture by Sean Lopez, created for the course — can be seen on the northeast side of CVAD at the corner of Mulberry and Welch streets, after dusk throughout the exhibition.
As part of a larger collaborative four-part project, Ritchie has been developing a joint performance, "Infinite Movement," with Kristina MacMullen, D.M.A., associate professor in the UNT College of Music and UNT alumna Shara Nova, (B.A., Performance - Voice), to debut Oct. 9, 2021, at 7 p.m. in the Art Building Courtyard. This event will explore musical possibilities to reflect, in sound, the process of the GAN, which finds connections between disparate images and imagines or generates what might exist in the space between them.
"Matthew Ritchie: Florilegium" will culminate with a digital publication documenting the exhibition, musical performance, sculpture, class, programming, and collaborative efforts of all those involved.
