Ricardo Brey's works on paper are multi-layered, meticulously rendered compositions that frequently incorporate unusual media, objects, or words. Even as Brey experiments with form, scale, collage, and color, the works retain a profound engagement with the natural world and humanity's place in it. Interrupted Fern (2021) is dominated by a stormy cloud of indigo against a stark empty background.

From the dark core of the indigo mass, floral and rhizomatic silhouettes appear to grow outward, extending and unfurling organically. The artist’s use of indigo pigment creates the impression of a watery environment that seems to float in empty space. The ethereal form of the cloud is juxtaposed against delicate plant forms rendered in pencil and pastel and given depth and dynamicity by the internal darkness of the cloud of pigment, pulling the work back to Brey’s earlier earthy references. The rhizome is a recurring theme in Brey’s works. Per the artist’s philosophical framework, it is through the model of the rhizome which we can experience and parse multiplicities rather than reducing our experience to a set of binaries.