Inka Essenhigh USA, b. 1969
Inka Essenhigh is among the most influential and celebrated painters working today. Her masterly, dreamlike paintings translate her encounters with, and intuitions about, contemporary society into haunting, playful, sometimes disturbing visual scenes.
Essenhigh is part of a generation of artists that includes Rachel Feinstein, Lisa Yuskavage and Cecily Brown, that rose to prominence in 1990s New York as leaders in the contemporary return to figuration.
Employing a mix of automatism, imagination and “inner vision,” Essenhigh translates the visible world into arabesque compositions that suggest unseen worlds of energy, feeling and mystery lurking just beyond the surface of everyday life. These imaginative and highly abstracted landscapes invite viewers to temporarily abscond from the corporeal realm into a world of symbolism and mystery.
Says Essenhigh, “The unknown comes from the painting process, putting brush to canvas. I do have an agenda, and a world I want to create. I’m not interested in meaninglessness. But I am looking for the feeling that the images are coming to me.”
Essenhigh sometimes engages with existing myths, fairy tales and fables, and sometimes invents her own. For example, the painting Daphne and Apollo (2012), inspired by the eponymous Greek myth, seizes the climatic, moonlit scene when the nymph Daphne, pursued by an aroused Apollo, is transformed into a tree after a desperate appeal to her father, the river god Peneus.
Summer Landscape (2013) meanwhile has new stories to tell as magical sprites inter-twine chameleon-like with plants and vines along an undulating, luminescent horizon. Segmented into three panels and painted on paper, its subject matter and golden hues bring to mind perhaps a 16th century Byōbu, ethereally placing the narrative simultaneously in the past and present.
Essenhigh’s most recent series, titled Uchronia, envisages a hypothetical, idyllic future for the inhabitants of Earth. Centering scenes set across the centuries, this body of work traces humanity’s evolution from a species at odds with its ecosystem to one that has resolved its conflicts with the natural world.
Recent exhibitions of Essenhigh's work include Disruption: Works from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, USA; Inka Essenhigh: Uchronia, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, USA; Inka Essnhigh: Other Worlds, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; SIte Specific Installation, Drawing Center, New York, USA; Inka Essenhigh: Between Worlds, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, USA Inka Essenhigh: A fine line, Virginia MOCA, Virginia Beach, VA, USA; Comic Abstraction: Image-Breaking, Image-Making, MOMA, New York, USA; USA Today, Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington Gardens, London, England; 2nd Berlin Biennale, Berlin, DE; Supernova, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, USA; Hybrids, Tate Gallery, Liverpool, England and Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil. Work by Essenhigh is in the collections of the Tate, the Denver Art Museum, MOMA / P.S.1, San Francisco MOMA, the Seattle Art Museums, and many others.
- Inka EssenhighLiving room 2600 C.E., 2019Enamel on canvas35 1/2 x 80 x 2 in
90.2 x 203.2 x 5.1 cm - Inka EssenhighNew Jersey 2600 C.E., 2019Enamel on canvas35 1/2 x 80 x 2 in
90.2 x 203.2 x 5.1 cm - Inka EssenhighKitchen 2623 C.E., 2018Enamel on canvas60 x 72 x 2 in
152.4 x 182.9 x 5.1 cm - Inka EssenhighFragments from a nature cult, 2087 C.E., 2019Enamel on canvasNine panels, 192 inches wide installed
- Inka EssenhighCinderella, 2018Enamel on canvas24 x 20 in
61 x 50.8 cm - Inka EssenhighDecomposing Forest, 2019Enamel on canvas44 x 40 x 2 in
111.8 x 101.6 x 5.1 cm - Inka EssenhighEnd of the world, 2019Enamel on canvas54 x 48 x 2 in
137.2 x 121.9 x 5.1 cm - Inka EssenhighNew Flowers, 2018Enamel and spray paint on canvas24 x 20 in
61 x 50.8 cm - Inka EssenhighPine and Spruce, 2018Enamel on canvas24 x 20 in
61 x 50.8 cm - Inka EssenhighThe Blazing World, 2019Enamel on canvas60 x 84 x 2 in
152.4 x 213.4 x 5.1 cm - Inka Essenhighwelcome to the Gather-n-Hunt, a family restaurant, 3500 C.E., 2018Enamel on canvas72 x 58 x 2 in
182.9 x 147.3 x 5.1 cm
Inka Essenhigh in ROUNDING THE CIRCLE: THE MARY AND AL SHANDS COLLECTION
Louisville, Kentucky23 Mar - 6 Aug 2023The Speed Art Museum presents Rounding the Circle: The Mary and Al Shands Collection, a major exhibition celebrating the extensive and significant collection of contemporary artworks assembled by the late...Read moreInka Essenhigh in The View from Here
Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME28 May - 11 Sep 2022CMCA presents the thematic group exhibition, The View from Here, featuring works by 20 artists (including two collaboratives) who have previously exhibited or otherwise been involved at CMCA across our...Read moreInka Essenhigh in Disruption: Works from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO16 Jan - 21 Dec 2022The Denver Art Museum (DAM) will present Disruption: Works from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection, starting Jan. 16, 2022, through 2022. The presentation, curated by Laura F. Almeida, Curatorial...Read moreNew Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century
BAMPFA, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA28 Aug 2021 - 30 Jan 2022New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century is a major survey exploring recent feminist practices in contemporary art. In 1980 Lucy Lippard argued that feminist art is “neither...Read moreInka Essenhigh, Uchronia
Kavi Gupta | 835 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, IL, 606071 Jun - 24 Aug 2019Kavi Gupta is proud to present Uchronia, a solo exhibition of new works by Inka Essenhigh that envisage a hypothetical, idyllic future for the inhabitants of Earth.Read moreFIXED CONTAINED, Curated by Tomokazu Matsuyama
Kotaru Nukaga | Tokyo, Japan20 Apr - 29 Jun 2019KOTARO NUKAGA is pleased to present FIXED CONTAINED, a group exhibition of seven international contemporary artists: Brian Alfred, Firelei Báez, Inka Essenhigh, Nir Hod, Tony Matelli, Tomokazu Matsuyama, and Carlos...Read moreInka Essenhigh, A Fine Line
Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art | Virginia Beach, VA17 Mar - 19 Aug 2018Inka Essenhigh creates beautiful paintings through a studio practice that emphasizes experimentation and exploration. Since Essenhigh’s emergence into the art world during the late 1990’s, she has consistently questioned and redefined her relationship with her media.Read more
Open Storage Ep. 8 | Inka Essenhigh 'Cliffhanger'
Collezione Maramotti April 5, 2022Open Storage is a video series fully conceived and produced by Collezione Maramotti. The Collection's Archive 'opens' to visitors, accompanied by Director S ara Piccinini,...Read moreInka Essenhigh: In the Studio
November 17, 2021 Read moreArt in Lockdown: Inka Essenhigh
April 21, 2020Art In lockdown Interview with Inka EssenhighRead moreInka Essenhigh: Uchronia
June 4, 2019 Read moreInka Essenhigh: A Fine Line at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art
April 19, 2018In celebration of Inka Essenhigh: A Fine Line solo exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), March 17 - August 19, 2018. Kalamazoo...Read moreInka Essenhigh: Smithsonian American Art Museum
February 21, 2017 Read moreInka Essenhigh: Between Worlds | The Frist Art Museum
May 31, 2016 Read moreJames Dicke Contemporary Artist Lecture with Inka Essenhigh
March 7, 2013 Read more
Inka Essenhigh: Creates Luminous, Ethereal Landscapes From Buckets of Paint and Coffee
Katie White, ArtNet, May 16, 2023Inka Essenhigh: 15 Landscape Artists You Need On Your Walls
Kristy Bowen, House Digest , March 6, 2023Inka Essenhigh in New Generation of Transcendental Painters
Salomé Gómez-Upegui, Artsy, February 28, 2023Global Audiences Join Kavi Gupta in Singapore for ART SG
January 12, 2023Inka Essenhigh: 10 Standout Lots Sold in Artsy Auctions in 2022
Ayanna Dozier, Artsy, December 15, 2022Inka Essenhigh: Forget the Hamptons. Artists, Dealers, and Advisors Are Congregating in a New Bucolic Contemporary Art H
Katya Kazakina, ArtNet News, July 22, 2022Inka Essenhigh: Why I Make Art: Contemporary Artists' Stories About Life & Work
From the South & Vision Podcast by Brian Alfred, Atelier ÉditionsInka Essenhigh: Artists in Support of Refugees from Ukraine
Artsy, April 1, 2022A REFRESHING VISION OF THE FUTURE
Robert Archambeau, HYPERALLERGIC, August 20, 2019Picturing Our Possible Futures
Phillip Barcio, Tikkun, August 16, 2019ART TOP 5: JULY 2019
Kerry Cardoza, NEWCITY Art, June 26, 2019INKA ESSENHIGH
Alex Jovanovich, ARTFORUM, June 1, 2018DECIPHERING INKA ESSENHIGH’S BLURRED VISIONS
Peter Malone, HYPERALLERGIC, May 18, 2018QUESTIONS ABOUT HER ART? ASK AWAY
Rami Yoakum, Southside Daily, May 11, 2018WHAT TO SEE IN NEW YORK ART GALLERIES THIS WEEK (EXCERPT)
Roberta Smith, New York times, March 24, 2018VIRGINIA MOCA PRESENTS INKA ESSENHIGH: A FINE LINE
HYPERALLERGIC, March 19, 2018BEER WITH A PAINTER: STEVE MUMFORD AND INKA ESSENHIGH
Jennifer Samet, HYPERALLERGIC, November 25, 2017SINGLE WORK APPRECIATION DAY: ‘AQUARIUS,’ INKA ESSENHIGH
Daniel Maidman, Huffington Post, October 26, 2017THE ‘UNDENIABLE BEAUTY’ OF INKA ESSENHIGH’S PAINTINGS
Dan Halm, SVA NYC, June 14, 2017
The Armory Show 2024
Javits Center | Booth 3266 - 8 Sep 2024Booth 326 JAVITS CENTER 429 11TH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10001 VIP Preview: Thursday, September 5 | 11 - 7 PM Friday, September 6 |...Read moreArt Singapore 2023
Booth 1F01, Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Singapore11 - 15 Jan 2023Join us January 11-15, 2023, in Singapore for the inaugural edition of ART SG, Southeast Asia’s largest art fair. Our presentation will include a diverse...Read moreEXPO CHICAGO 2022
7 - 10 Apr 2022It is with great excitement that Kavi Gupta celebrates the return of EXPO Chicago. After almost three years, we are once again able to spotlight...Read moreKavi Gupta Pop-Up Exhibition in Palm Beach
Part of the Arts & Conversations Series7 - 21 Dec 2021Presenting a Kavi Gupta Pop-Up Exhibition in Palm Beach December 7 – December 27, 2021 1608 S Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach Register for appointments...Read moreArt Basel Miami Beach 2021
2 - 4 Dec 2021For Art Basel Miami Beach 2021, Kavi Gupta presents an array of timely and important works by all of the artists represented in our diverse...Read moreArt Collaboration Kyoto 2021
5 - 7 Nov 2021Art Collaboration Kyoto Executive Committee Establishment Prospectus Since ancient times, Kyoto's cultural arts have developed as the basis of various economic and social activities while...Read moreFRIEZE LONDON/ FRIEZE MASTERS
13 - 17 Oct 2021Kavi Gupta is proud to be participating in the 2021 editions of both Frieze London and Frieze Masters. For Frieze London, we will present a...Read moreArt Basel Miami Beach 2019
4 - 8 Dec 2019Read moreFrieze London 2019
3 - 6 Oct 2019Read moreFrieze New York 2019
2 - 5 May 2019Kavi Gupta is pleased to participate in Frieze New York. Kavi Gupta Gallery will be located at Booth B22. For more information please contact 312-432-0708.Read moreArt Basel Miami Bach 2018
6 - 9 Dec 20182018 has been a landmark year for AFRICOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), which was founded in Chicago in 1968 and defined the aesthetic...Read more