Inferno, Peter Blum Gallery, NYC

March 30 – May 20, 2023

Link to the Viewing Room on Peter Blum Gallery’s web site

Peter Blum Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Luisa Rabbia entitled, Inferno. This is Rabbia’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery and will be presented at 176 Grand Street, New York. There will be an artist’s reception Thursday, March 30, from 6 – 8pm. The exhibition runs through May 20, 2023.

Throughout her career, Luisa Rabbia’s work has explored the psychosocial nuances of humanity from the individual to the collective experience. Her intuitive and emotional approach leaves behind a collection of traces on the surface of the canvas that while evoking temporality also allow for reflections on the spiritual.

In her newest series, taking visual cues from Sandro Botticelli’s Map of Hell (1480-1495)—a key drawing from a series of 92 commissioned to illustrate Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy–Rabbia reimagines Hell within the landscape of the human body. She eschews religious connotations to instead investigate more personal, terrestrial Hells that are part of the human experience. In the works, Botticellli’s circles of Hell become rib cages, their bodies stripped bare of skin and flesh as Rabbia excavates the surface, scraping away paint to reveal visceral, expressive worlds of inner turmoil.

The exhibition Inferno will present a group of large oil on canvas paintings as well as a series of nine works on paper titled The Inferno, Broken in Nine Pieces, which specifically represents conditions such as anxiety, helplessness, loss, separation, war, loneliness, injustice, and pregnancy with an unwanted child. The paintings expand on this theme to include manifestations of evil using the same corporeal composition, thereby further addressing the nature of suffering in the world today.

Bird of Prey, 2022. Oil on linen, 80 1/2×121 1/2 in – 204×309 cm
Inferno, 2021-2022. Oil on canvas. 84×60 in – 213×152 cm
Wailing Women, 2022. Oil on linen, 84×49 5/8 in- 213.5×126 cm
Lucifer, 2022. Oil on canvas, 84×60 in – 213×152 cm
Clessidra, 2022-2023, Oil on linen, 49 1/2×34 ins – 125.5×86.5 cm
Broken, 2023. Oil on linen, 84×48 1/2 in -213×123 cm
The Beginning, 2023. Oil on linen, 84×47 1/2 in – 213×120 cm

THE INFERNO, BROKEN IN NINE PIECES

The Inferno, Broken in Nine Pieces: Anxiety, 2022. Acrylic and wax pastel on paper 45×32 in – 114.5x 81.5 cm
The Inferno, Broken in Nine Pieces: War, 2022. Acrylic and wax pastel on paper, 45×32 in – 114.5×81.5 cm
The Inferno, Broken in Nine Pieces: The Unwanted Child, 2022.. Acrylic and wax pastel on paper, 45×32 in – 114.5×81.5 cm
The Inferno, Broken in Nine Pieces: Separation, 2022. Acrylic and wax pastel on paper, 45×32 in – 114.5×81.5 cm
The Inferno, Broken in Nine Pieces: Loneliness, 2022. Acrylic and wax pastel on paper, 45×32 in – 114.5×81.5 cm
The Inferno, Broken in Nine Pieces: Injustice, 2022. Acrylic and wax pastel on paper, 45×32 in – 114.5×81.5 cm
The Inferno, Broken in Nine Pieces: Helplessness, 2022. Acrylic and wax pastel on paper, 45×32 in – 114.5×81.5 cm
The Inferno, Broken in Nine Pieces: Abuse, 2022. Acrylic and wax pastel on paper, 45×32 in – 114.5×81.5 cm
The Inferno, Broken in Nine Pieces: Loss, 2022. Acrylic and wax pastel on paper, 45×62 in – 114.5×157.5 cm