Since the 1960s, Bridget Riley has been creating complex paintings and drawings that produce striking optical effects activating the space between the work and the viewer. This focused exhibition, drawn in part from Dia’s collection, showcases a selection of Riley’s earliest black-and-white paintings, created between 1961 and ’64, before she introduced color into her work in ’67.

Featuring a range of deceptively simple, painstakingly intricate line-based and geometric motifs, each work induces a dynamic visual sensation, the composition appearing to compress and expand as the viewer moves around the canvas.

Together, these paintings demonstrate the breadth of perceptual effects Riley achieved with this limited palette and formal vocabulary, illustrating how these formative years laid the groundwork for her decades-long concern with spatial relations within and beyond the work.