Inka Essenhigh
Individual Works
Installation Views
Art in Lockdown - Inka Essenhigh from Kavi Gupta on Vimeo.
Inka Essenhigh - Uchronia from Kavi Gupta CHICAGO | BERLIN on Vimeo.
b. Belfonte, PA Lives and works in New York, NY
Inka Essenhigh (b. 1969, Pennsylvania, US) is renowned for her dreamlike paintings, which 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.
Inka Essenhigh paints landscapes from her imagination into which the eyes and minds of viewers might temporarily abscond. Employing a mix of narration, symbolism and mystery, her paintings explore what about nature can be known and what lurks beyond our perception. 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.”
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Inka Essenhigh, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York
2019 Inka Essenhigh: Uchronia, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL
Other Worlds: Inka Essenhigh, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA
Inka Essenhigh, Miles McEnry Gallery, New York
Manhattanhenge, The Drawing Center, New York
2016 Between Worlds, Frist Centre, Nashville, Tennessee
New Work, Honolulu Gallery, Zurich
2015 Stars and Flowers, Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO
2014 Comet Dust & Crystal Shards, Jacob Lewis Gallery, New York Columbus College of Art & Design, Canzani Center, Columbus, OH
2012 The Natural and the Man-Made, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo
Project Room: Inka Essenhigh, Pace Prints, New York
2010The Old New Age, 303 Gallery, New York
2005 Victoria Miro, London
DA2 Domus Artium 2, Salamanca, Spain
2004 Sint-Lukas Galerie, Brussels, Belgium
Etchings, Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York
2003 Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
Galleria II Capricorno, Venice
Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
2001 Works on paper, Victoria Miro (Project Room), London
Works on paper, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
2000 Victoria Miro, London Mary Boone Gallery, New York
1999 New Paintings, Deitch Projects, New York
American Landscapes: Recent Paintings by Inka Essenhigh, New Room of Contemporary Art, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
1998 Recent Paintings, Stefan Stux Gallery, New York
1997 Wallpaper Paintings, La Mama La Galleria, New York
Group Exhibitions
2020 Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of Coronavirus, online exhibition, USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL
The Figure in Solitude, online exhibition, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL
Radical Optimism, online exhibition, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL
Skirting the Line: Painting between Abstraction and Representation, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
Early Summer, Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO
Do You Think It Needs a Cloud?, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
Evolve: A Changing Exhibition of Work from the Collection, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME
Really., Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
2019The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
FIXED CONTAINED, Kotaro Nukaga, curated by Tomokazu Matsuyama, Tokyo, Japan,
Not All Doors Are The Same, Booth Gallery, New York, NY
2018 Parallel Lives, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL
Belief in Giants, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
Selections, Pace Prints, New York, NY
2017 Le Nuove Frontier Della Pittura, Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy
Summer Group Show, Jacob Lewis Gallery, New York, NY
Another Place, Shrine, New York, NY
2016 Dead Among The Dead!, Ellis King, Dublin, Ireland
Imagine, Brand New Gallery, Milano, Italy
Introductions, La MaMa La Galleria, New York, NY
Women in Print, Pace Prints, New York, NY
Now and Then, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2015 Eden, éden, curated by Timothée Chaillou, Galerie Torri, Paris
The Ukrainian Diaspora: Woman Artists 1908-2015, The Ukrainian Museum, New York
Painters NYC, Paramo Gallery, Guadalajara, Mexico; traveling to Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños (MUPO), Oaxaca, Mexico
Disturbing Innocence, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
2014 Sargent’s Daughters, Sargent’s Daughters, New York
2013 The Golden Ass, Blindarte Contemporanea, Naples, Italy
Cinematic Visions: Painting at the Edge of Reality, Victoria Miro, London
Pivot Points: 15 Years & Counting, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, FL
2012 Fairy Tales, Monsters and the Genetic Imagination, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN; touring to Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, Canada; Glenbow Art Museum, Calgary, Canada The Sound of Painting, Palazzo Saluzzo Paesana, Turin, Italy
2011 Inka Essenhigh & Richard Van Buren: Un/Natural Splendor, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME
Inside the Painter’s Studio, Stephen D. Paine Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA
Creating the New Century: Contemporary Art from the Dicke Collection, Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH
Counterpoint, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME
2010 Between Picture and Viewer, Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Counterparts: Contemporary Painters and Their Influences, Contemporary Center of Art, Virginia
The Game of Multiple Meaning: Symbolism and the Art of the Present, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany
Comic Abstraction, Museum of Modern Art, New York
COMIX, Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense, Denmark
Imagination Becomes Reality, ZKM / Museum Fur Neue kunst, Karlsruhe, Germany
2006 Painting Codes, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy
The Complusive Line: Etching 1900 to Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York
USA Today, The Royal Academy of Art, London
Imagination Becomes Reality, Part III. Talking Pictures, Goetz Collection, Denmark
Motion on Paper, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London
Art on Paper 2006, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greenboro, NC
2005 Life and Limb, curated by David Humphrey, Feign Contemporary, New York, NY
Neobaroque, Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Spain
2004 Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque SITESanta Fe 5th International Biennial (curated by Robert Storr), Santa Fe, New Mexico
26th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Funny Cuts – Cartoons and Comics in Contemporary Art, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany
Perspectives at 25, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston ,TX
2003 Painting Pictures; Painting and Media in the Digital Age, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; travelling to Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans and University of North Texas, Denton
Supernova: Art of the 1990’s from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Reverie: Works from the Collection of Douglas S. Cramer, The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
Drawing, G Gallery, Washington D.C.
Heaven & Hell, Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
2002 The Galleries Show, The Royal Academy of Art, London
Pertaining to Painting, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (28 June – 29 September 2002) and Austin Museum of Art, Texas (November – February 2003)
Jay Davis, Inka Essenhigh, Christian Schuman, Angstrom Gallery, Dallas, TX
La Part de l’Autre, Carre d’Art -Musee d’art contemporain de Nimes, France
Art in the ‘toon age’, Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, MI
2001My Reality: Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; traveling to Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn (July – October); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio (January – March 2002); Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Illinois (April – June 2002); Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago (July – September 2002); Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio (September – January 2003); Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art, Tacoma, Washington (July –September 2003); Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama (October – January 2004)
Hybrids, Tate Gallery, Liverpool
braille, Angstrom Gallery, Dallas, TX
2nd Berlin Biennale, Berlin
Works on paper: from Acconci to Zittel, Victoria Miro, London
Casino 2001, 1st Quadrennial of Contemporary Art, SMAK Stedelijk Museum voor Actuelle Kunst, Ghent
2000 Greater New York: New Art in New York Now, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York
The Figure: Another State of Modernism, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York
Deitch/Steinberg New Editions, Deitch Projects, New York
Emotional Rescue, Center for Contemporary Art, Seattle
To Infinity and Beyond, Brooke Alexander, New York
1999 Pleasure Dome, Jessica Fredericks Gallery, New York
The Armory Show, Stefan Stux Gallery, New York
A room with a view, Sixth @ Prince Fine Art, New York
1998 Blade Runner, Caren Golden Fine Art, New York
The New Surrealism, Pamela Auchincloss Project Space, New York
Wild, Exit Art/The First World, New York
Pop Surrealism, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Summer Review, 98, Stefan Stux Gallery, New York
Celebrating Diversity: Contemporary Women Painters, Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Brookville, New York
ANATOMY/INTELLECT, Stefanelli Exhibition Space, New York
1997 Sex/Industry, Stefan Stux Gallery, New York
The Art Exchange Fair, with Stefan Stux Gallery, New York
Girls! Girls! Girls!, Tricia Collins’ Grand Salon, New York
1996 Set Off: Inaugural Group Show, View Room Exhibitions, New York
Underexposed: Nine Young American Painters, André Zarre Gallery, New York
Set Off: Inaugural Group Show, View Room Exhibitions, New York
Anatomy Intellect, Stefanelli Exhibition Space, New York
Featured Web Page Artist for December, Artists’ Space, New York
Night of 1000 Drawings, Artists’ Space, New York
1994 Juried Group Show, School of Visual Arts, FirstFloor Gallery, New York
1993 Young Ukrainian American Painters Group Show, Ukrainian Museum, New York
Work-Play: Picture Thinking and the Analogical Imagination, Visual Arts Gallery, New York
Group Show: Inka Essenhigh, Stephen Mumford and Leemour Pelli: Paintings, School of Visual Arts, Wooster Street Gallery, New York