The Chazan Gallery at Wheeler is pleased to present the solo show UNA SELVA OSCURA: ILLUSTRATING DANTE’S INFERNO featuring the work by Robert Brinkerhoff, from September 19 to October 9, 2024. 

La Commedia (The Comedy) by Dante Alighieri, has for more than 700 years
mirrored the preoccupations of people whose paths in life are pondered with affection, regret, lost love, moral misgivings, and political resentment. Anyone picking up Dante in midlife will realize how much they have in common with a 14th century poet, despite the many centuries and linguistic traditions that separate the poet and his reader." “Una selva oscura” translates as “a dark wood” or a dark forest—the bewildering and frightening setting in which Dante finds himself as L’Inferno, the first book of La Commedia, begins.
 

The thirty-five drawings in this exhibition were produced in strict order, from the first canto (chapter) to the last. For Brinkerhoff, this deliberate adherence to the chronology of L’Inferno created an analogous engagement with Dante’s narrative. The work has been deliberately structured as time consuming toil, but pleasurable toil, like any worthwhile artistic endeavor should be, as stated by the artist. Brinkerhoff has undertaken this project as a performative, mid-life metaphor, drawing an image for each canto of the poem, from beginning to end, in the proper sequence, and as a living artistic narrative. More than any other previous studio project , "illustrating Dante's Inferno" has allowed Brinkerhoff to study his own processes—his allegorical relationship to the content as an artist.
 

This exhibition marks the first time the drawings are shown publicly. The entire suite of drawings is available on the artist’s website: robertbrinkerhoff.com/blog, and on his Instagram page: instagram.com/housemessenger.
 

Robert Brinkerhoff is an illustrator and Professor at Rhode Island School of Design, where he also serves as Department Head for Illustration. As the former Graduate Program Director for Illustration and Dean of Fine Arts at RISD, he has been part of many initiatives at the college for more than 25 years. His teaching explores the intersection of art, literature, mythology, and writing, and his illustration client list includes major corporations and cultural/educational institutions such as The Tate, The Silk Road Ensemble, MIT, Brown University and Brandeis University, as well as regional and national magazines. His illustration work has been recognized by Print, How, American Illustration, the Society of Illustrators, The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the University & College Designers Association (UCDA). He has exhibited and published both nationally and internationally and has held artist residencies in
the US, Ireland and Italy, including a 2023 Affiliate Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome.
 

Awarded a Visiting Distinguished Thought Leader designation from the University of South Australia in 2019, Brinkerhoff also served as Chief Critic for RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome from 2007-09 and was a founding faculty mentor for the Sheikha Salama Foundation’s Emerging Artists Fellowship in the UAE. He has contributed to several books, including Reading Dante With Images: A Visual Lectura Dantis (Harvey Miller, 2021) and The History of Illustration (Bloomsbury, 2019).