Riese's work is almost bland in comparison. Many have called her an artist of the computer age, and indeed the mechanical repetition of the squiggles, lines and squares call to mind a computer screen gone awry. But her patterning also calls to mind the obsessive concentration of a computer geek. There is a calculation in the placement of brightness in what otherwise is a mass of nonconfrontational colors. Riese has covered her paper with masses of a contorted and compressed alphabet.
Letters hint at secret meanings.
These visually absorbing works are extraordinary and thoughtful deliberations into the relationships of mass and message. It is here that Riese truly shows her artistic gifts, working more comfortably in diminutive spatial arrangements. Riese seems to be a private person, preferring to maintain a thoughtful, deliberate agenda, resisting any emotional highs or lows. Myra Yellin Outwater is a free-lance writer.