Winter Member Show

Juror: Robert Brinkerhoff: Professor of Illustration at RISD

Robert Brinkerhoff was born in Okinawa to American parents and raised in Virginia. Since his arrival at RISD in 1996, his teaching has focused on illustration concepts classes and the synthesis of illustration and design. As an illustrator and designer, Brinkerhoff’s clients have included corporations, institutions of higher learning such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University and Brandeis University, and regional and national magazines. His illustrations have stood out in numerous competitions sponsored by the University and College Designer’s Association (UCDA), the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Society of Illustrators, among others, and appeared in annuals such as Print, How and American Illustration. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally and has been awarded artist residencies in the US, Italy and the Republic of Ireland. Brinkerhoff has served as both the head of Illustration and chief critic for RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome.

Juror’s Statement

Assembling an exhibition of 62 works from more than 279 exuberant submissions, I responded subjectively to a wide variety of artistic intentions, but with an eye to broader appeal. There were striking consistencies among many works: subjects composed in profile (human and otherwise) appeared numerous times; material metaphor was central to a large number of works; and natural phenomena in the world around us aroused curiosity and awe among several artists.

While all of the submissions commanded attention and deserved recognition, what has been assembled represents a sampling of approaches to art-making that align with the exhibition’s themes: “Communal Meaning”; “Openness;” and “Stickiness.”

Whether through the open-ended, sensual appeal of abstraction or the metaphorical representation of complex ideas in ultra-realistic works, “communal meaning” resonates in many modalities.

Beauty is central to many of the selected works, underscoring the transcendent “openness” of aesthetic experience, regardless of personal perspective.

Well-crafted work is also a consistent quality, with common admiration of finely-honed skill resulting in “stickiness”—the ability of a work to impress and remain after moving the viewer aesthetically.

Ultimately, the selected works honor craft and an apparent enjoyment of making as much as they do beauty and the pursuit of deeper meaning. My hope is that the exhibition manages to honor all three dimensions of art: craft, aesthetic experience and enduring significance, while showcasing a broad range of artistic voices from its contributors.