Matthew Ritchie's Games of Chance and Skill was commissioned for the Albert and Barrie Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center, a Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates building, through MIT's Percent-for-Art Program administered by the List Visual Arts Center.

It is a three-part artwork designed specifically for the 80-foot corridor overlooking the Center's 50-meter Olympic-class pool. It consists of an enamel mural, a fritted glass window, and a laminated and internally-lit ceiling. It is a map of space and time uniquely personal to the artist that can be read differently by each viewer. Abstract forms evoke seven critical stages in the emergence of the universe matched with equations drawn from various scientific fields, to describe the growth of the universe from the moment of the big-bang to the evolution of life and human consciousness.

Underlying the entire structure is an abstract form the artist calls the swimmer which represents for him the space-time continuum. Ultimately Ritchie's theme is our relationship to the laws of the universe and how we play our games of chance and skill amidst those laws, not ruled by them.

Matthew Ritchie was born in London in 1964. He lives and works in New York City.