Contributed by Zach Seeger / One day, the polyglot, not-quite-formed figurative painter Alfred Jensen was sitting at his desk in his studio mulling over what to do next. A world traveler, he had a bounty of books, cutouts, and sketches of glyphs, logograms, symbols and signifiers nesting in his studio. But he was stuck. Then Mark Rothko knocked on the door for a studio visit. After a few long drags from his cigarette, Rothko gestured to the byzantine bric-a-brac on Jensen’s wall and said, “You know, Alfred, that’s your work. Paint that.” From that point forward, Jensen changed how and what he painted. Via sticker-book color and flourish, “Gritty Rituals,” a thoughtfully energizing group show at Equity Gallery, recalls the schematic proto-pop that Jensen teamed with imagist distortion and tantric and somatic references.