Dante Alighiere – Inferno

Graphic Studio Gallery, Temple Bar, Dublin Mon-Fri 10am-5.30pm, Sat 11am-5pm Until Aug 25 01-6798021 graphicstudiodublin.com

From its original appearance in the 14th century, Dante’s classic allegorical epic The Divine Comedy has been an inspiration to artists in many disciplines – even pop music, if we take Neil Hannon into account. For obvious reasons, printmakers have been drawn to it most, and now Liam Ó Broin joins their ranks with a series of 34 coloured lithographs made in response to each canto of the first of the Comedy’s three canticas, the Inferno.

Ó Broin’s lush, fluently made graphic images chart Dante’s journey through the realms of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. The artist opts not for literal illustrations of the text, but an equivalent allegorical vision of his own, Hell as “the inferno of our time . . . the one which can be created by ourselves and for others, in the here and now”.

The show is accompanied by a bound book comprising complete, numbered editions of the prints and essays by Ó Broin and Dr Riann Coulter. The prints are also available in a museum standard box set.

Can’t see that? Catch this: Whitewashing the Moon, Project Arts Centre, Dublin