{{Short description|American painter (born 1969)}} {{Infobox person | name = Inka Essenhigh | image = Artist Inka Essenhigh (cropped).jpg | caption = Essenhigh in 2005 | birth_name = | birth_date = 1969 | birth_place = Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, US | death_date = | death_place = | alma_mater = Columbus College of Art and Design, School of Visual Arts (MFA) | occupation = Painter, educator | movement = Pop Surrealism, New Figuration, Comic Abstraction | spouse = Steve Mumford | known_for = Painting, printmaking | works = | awards = | website = }}
'''Inka Essenhigh''' (born 1969) is an American painter and educator, based in New York City. Throughout her career, Essenhigh has had solo exhibitions at galleries such as Deitch Projects, Mary Boone Gallery, 303 Gallery, Stefan Stux Gallery, and Jacob Lewis Gallery in New York, Kotaro Nukaga,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-05-08 |title=Inka Essenhigh |url=https://kotaronukaga.com/en/artist/inka-essenhigh/ |access-date=2023-09-19 |website=KOTARO NUKAGA |language=en-US}}</ref> Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo, and Il Capricorno in Venice.<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Vitamin P |location=Regent's Wharf, All Saints Street London n1 9PA |publisher=Phaidon Press Limited |date=2002 |isbn=978-0714842462}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2012/03/22/arts/rich-tales-of-inka-essenhigh-2/#.XC0rzy2ZPdQ |title = Rich tales of Inka Essenhigh|date = 2012-03-22}}</ref>
==Education== Essenhigh graduated from Upper Arlington High School and studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio (1991) and earned a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York (1992–94).<ref name="Beer-2017">{{Cite web | url=https://hyperallergic.com/413313/beer-with-a-painter-steve-mumford-and-inka-essenhigh/ |title = Beer with a Painter: Steve Mumford and Inka Essenhigh|date = 2017-11-25}}</ref> She has taught at the New York Academy of Art and was a Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.<ref>{{cite news | url =https://nyaa.edu/graduate-program/faculty/inka-essenhigh/ | accessdate = December 19, 2018 |title=Faculty}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url =https://atlanticcenterforthearts.org/residencies/mair-residency-history/ | accessdate =December 19, 2018 | title =Residency History | archive-date =August 20, 2018 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20180820030228/http://atlanticcenterforthearts.org/residencies/mair-residency-history/ | url-status =dead }}</ref>
thumb|right|Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2017, enamel on canvas, 32 x 80 inches, as published in Artforum
==Work== In the mid-1990s, Essenhigh was among the first generation of American artists to return to figuration.<ref>{{cite book |author=Charlotte Mullins |title=Painting People, Figure Painting Today |url=https://archive.org/details/paintingpeoplefi0000mull |url-access=registration |location=New York|publisher=Distributed Art Publishers |date=2006 |isbn=978-1-933045-38-2}}</ref> Stylistically, her paintings have been described as ranging from completely flat to rendering deep pictorial space, blending abstraction and figuration and going back and forth between the two.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Maine|first1=Stephen|title=Reviews: Inka Essenhigh|date=Apr 26, 2010|url=https://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/inka-essenhigh/}}</ref> In the late 1990s, Essenhigh's work attracted attention as one of a generation of young painters in New York, including Cecily Brown, Damien Loeb and Will Cotton.<ref>Hoban, Phoebe: "The Mod Squad", New York Magazine, Jan 5, 1999 http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/1051/</ref> Her early work was sometimes characterized as "Pop Surrealism" for its strangely attenuated cartoon forms and flat, simple colors.<ref>Nahas, Dominique and Klein, Richard: "Pop Surrealism", Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Jan, 1999</ref><ref>Clearwater, Bonnie: "Inka Essenhigh", Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Nov, 2003</ref> She was included in the influential 1998 Pop Surrealism exhibition at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, which Steven Henry Madoff described in Artforum as follows: “The mutant sensibility at work in this droll, smartly curated exhibition proposes the marriage of Surrealism's dream-laden fetish for the body eroticized and grotesque and Pop art's celebration of the shallower, corrosively bright world given over to the packaged good.”<ref>Madoff, Steven Henry: "Pop Surrealism", Artforum International, Vol. 37, No. 2, October 1998 [https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-21230382/pop-surrealism-exhibit-at-aldrich-museum-of-contemporary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219230327/https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-21230382/pop-surrealism-exhibit-at-aldrich-museum-of-contemporary|date=2018-12-19}}</ref>
thumb|right|Spring, 2006, oil on canvas, 72 x 62 inches (182.9 x 157.5 cm) at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
A decade later, Essenhigh was included in another groundbreaking exhibition — The Museum of Modern Art’s Comic Abstraction: Image Making, Image Breaking (2007).<ref name="Comic Abstraction">{{Cite web | url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/13 |title = Comic Abstraction: Image-Breaking, Image-Making}}</ref> The mid 2000s brought on a distinct shift in Essenhigh’s style and materials, from her use of very flat enamel paints in the 1990s, to a more atmospheric application of oil paint in the new decade.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Plagens|first1=Peter|title=Art Review: Gallery Exhibitions of Inka Essenhigh, Michelle Grabner and Russian Avant-Garde Art|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/gallery-exhibitions-of-inka-essenhigh-michelle-grabner-and-russian-avant-garde-art-1414203389|accessdate=7 March 2015|work=The Wall Street Journal|date=Oct 24, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Setup: Inka Essenhigh – "Comet Dust & Crystal Shards" @ Jacob Lewis Gallery|url=http://arrestedmotion.com/2014/10/setup-inka-essenhigh-comet-dust-crystal-shards-jacob-lewis-gallery/|accessdate=7 March 2015|work=Arrested Motion|date=October 14, 2014}}</ref> (see Born Again, 1999, enamel on canvas, in the collection of the Tate Modern versus Spring, 2006, oil on canvas, in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.) For Essenhigh, these changes in materials not only differed aesthetically, but pointed to clear references in art history: “I stopped painting in oil for a time and started using enamel. At the time I needed to get away from all that history, that search for deeper emotions. I needed to drop all the baggage that comes with oil paint and do something completely contemporary, which I found in the slick, bright, flat surfaces of enamels.”<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/sep/20/guide-to-painting-inka-essenhigh|title=Artist Inka Essenhigh on how she paints|first=Inka|last=Essenhigh|date=September 20, 2009|website=the Guardian}}</ref> Essenhigh has most recently moved back to enamel painting, but completed in such a manner as to retain the qualities of light found in her earlier work with oil (as seen in Midsummer Night’s Dream, enamel on canvas, 2017).
thumb|right|Born Again, 1999, Enamel on Canvas, from the collection of the Tate Modern
thumb|right|Deluge, 1998, oil enamel on canvas, 72 x 72 inches (182.88 x 182.88 cm) Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
While Essenhigh often made use of automatic drawing early on in her career,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sheets|first1=Hilary|title=SWIRLS, WHIRLS, & MERMAID GIRLS|work=Art News|date=May 2004|pages=136–139}}</ref> the work has since shifted to a very intentional use of narrative content.<ref>{{cite book |last=Farthing |first=Stephen |date=2007 |title=1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die |location=New York, NY |publisher=Quintet Publishing Limited |page=936 |isbn=978-0-7893-1524-3}}</ref> In an interview with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Essenhigh explains, “Maybe I don’t need to take whatever comes out of my imagination and be ok with that. Maybe I can start to form the world that I want to live in.”<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://americanart.si.edu/videos/meet-artist-inka-essenhigh-154421 |title = Meet the Artist: Inka Essenhigh}}</ref> Mythology, landscape and the urban versus pastoral are recurring motifs in her work, although Essenhigh does not limit herself by subject. She has blended abstraction and figuration in an investigation of psychological and metaphysical realities. In a 2018 Hyperallergic review, the artist/writer Peter Malone describes, “Essenhigh reveals a freedom that resonates with all manner of fusion: of figure and design, of abstraction and narrative, of sentiment and humor, and more generally, of ambitious painting with a readable narrative.”<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://hyperallergic.com/442946/inka-essenhigh/ | title=Deciphering Inka Essenhigh's Blurred Visions| date=2018-05-17}}</ref> Essenhigh states, “I think about the archetypes and stories that we tell ourselves, and reenact in some way. We change our consciousness through storytelling all the time. If you want to change how people are thinking about something, you can tell a story about it. It does the job really fast. I don’t think I’m necessarily changing consciousness, but I’m painting another place. I would like my paintings to have that feeling — that other worlds are possible.”<ref name="Beer-2017"/>
In 2018, Essenhigh completed a mural at the Drawing Center in New York, NY and had two solo exhibitions, one at Miles McEnery Gallery in New York, NY<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/qveaq3/a-painter-of-dreams-wakes-up-in-new-york|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426213531/https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/qveaq3/a-painter-of-dreams-wakes-up-in-new-york|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 26, 2018|title=You'll Want To Crawl Into This Artist's Surreal Paintings|first=Paddy|last=Johnson|date=March 20, 2018}}</ref> and a retrospective at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach, VA, "A Fine Line",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pilotonline.com/entertainment/arts/exhibits/article_024a66e2-ab4f-522b-8b66-9fdd7c888221.html|title=The Virginian-Pilot|website=The Virginian-Pilot}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hyperallergic.com/432437/virginia-moca-presents-inka-essenhigh-fine-line/|title=Virginia MOCA Presents Inka Essenhigh: A Fine Line|first1=Tiernan|last1=Morgan|date=March 19, 2018|website=Hyperallergic}}</ref> which traveled to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.<ref name="auto3">{{Cite web | url=https://www.kiarts.org/page.php?page_id=1658 | title=Inka Essenhigh: A Fine Line | Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA) }}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Essenhigh’s first monograph was published by MOCA in conjunction with the exhibition.<ref name="auto4">{{Cite web | url=http://www.virginiamoca.org/inka-essenhigh-fine-line | title=You are being redirected | access-date=2018-12-12 | archive-date=2018-12-15 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215222240/http://www.virginiamoca.org/inka-essenhigh-fine-line | url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Selected exhibitions== * 2019 “A Fine Line,” Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI.<ref name="auto3"/> * 2018 "Manhattanhenge," The Drawing Center, New York, NY.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.drawingcenter.org/en/drawingcenter/5/exhibitions/9/upcoming/1667/inka-essenhigh/ |title = The Drawing Center | New York, NY | Exhibitions | Upcoming | Inka Essenhigh}}</ref> * “A Fine Line,” Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA.<ref name="auto4"/> * Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hyperallergic.com/442946/inka-essenhigh/|title=Deciphering Inka Essenhigh's Blurred Visions|first1=Peter|last1=Malone|date=May 17, 2018|website=Hyperallergic}}</ref> * "The New Frontiers of Painting," Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://stelline.it/en/stelline-foundation/exhibitions/new-frontiers-painting-till-25022018|title = THE NEW FRONTIERS OF PAINTING || till 25.02.2018|date = 2017-10-24|access-date = 2018-12-12|archive-date = 2018-12-15|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181215223138/https://stelline.it/en/stelline-foundation/exhibitions/new-frontiers-painting-till-25022018|url-status = dead}}</ref> * 2016 “Between Worlds,” Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://fristartmuseum.org/calendar/detail/inka-essenhigh-between-worlds | title=Inka Essenhigh: Between Worlds - Frist Art Museum | access-date=2018-12-12 | archive-date=2018-12-15 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215222906/https://fristartmuseum.org/calendar/detail/inka-essenhigh-between-worlds | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.artforum.com/picks/frist-center-for-the-visual-arts-63316 | title=Inka Essenhigh at Frist Art Museum}}</ref> * 2015 "The Ukrainian Diaspora: Women Artists 1908–2015." The Ukrainian Museum, New York, NY.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.ukrainianmuseum.org/ex_151018ex_ukrwomenartists1908-2015.html | title=Ukrainian Museum NYC News: The Ukrainian Diaspora: Women Artists 1908–2015}}</ref> * “Disturbing Innocence,” Curated by Eric Fischl, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://flagartfoundation.org/exhibitions/disturbing-innocence-2/ |title = Disturbing Innocence}}</ref> * 2014 “Comet Dust & Crystal Shards,” Jacob Lewis Gallery, New York, NY.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://online.wsj.com/articles/gallery-exhibitions-of-inka-essenhigh-michelle-grabner-and-russian-avant-garde-art-1414203389|title=Art Review: Gallery Exhibitions of Inka Essenhigh, Michelle Grabner and Russian Avant-Garde Art|first=Peter|last=Plagens|date=October 25, 2014|via=www.wsj.com}}</ref> * 2012 "The Natural and the Man-made," Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2012/03/22/arts/rich-tales-of-inka-essenhigh-2/|title=Rich tales of Inka Essenhigh|first=Matthew|last=Larking|date=March 22, 2012|website=The Japan Times}}</ref> * 2011 "Inka Essenhigh: New Editions & Monoprints," Pace Prints, New York, NY.<ref>[http://www.artcritical.com/2011/03/26/inka-essenhigh/ Goldsworthy, Rupert. March 26th 2011]</ref> * "UN/Natural Splendor," Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://newengland.com/today/living/new-england-environment/strangely-beautiful-maine-cmca/|title=Four great new art shows at Maine Center for Contemporary Art|date=August 17, 2011}}</ref> * 2010 "The Old New Age," 303 Gallery, New York, NY.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/arts/design/05galleries.html|title=Art in Review|first=Roberta|last=Smith|date=February 5, 2010|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> * 2007 "Comic Abstraction: Image-Breaking, Image-Making." Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.<ref name="Comic Abstraction"/> * 2006 303 Gallery, New York, NY.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2006/05/artseen/inka-essenhigh|title=Inka Essenhigh|first=James|last=Kalm|date=May 9, 2006|website=The Brooklyn Rail}}</ref> * “The Compulsive Line: Etching 1900 to Now,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.moma.org/artists/8191?locale=en |title = Inka Essenhigh | MoMA}}</ref> * 2004 SITE Santa Fe 5th International Biennial (curated by Robert Storr), Santa Fe, New Mexico.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artmap.com/sitesantafebiennial/exhibition/5th-international-biennial-santa-fe-2004|title=5th International Biennial Santa Fe at Site Santa Fe International Biennial Santa Fe - Artmap.com|website=artmap.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.frieze.com/article/fifth-international-site-santa-fe-biennial|title=Fifth International SITE Santa Fe Biennial|first=Peter|last=Eleey|date=October 10, 2004|issue=86|via=www.frieze.com}}</ref> * Universes in Universes, The 26th São Paulo Biennial, Sao Paulo, Brazil.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mutualart.com/Article/BIENAL-DE-SAO-PAULO/64DDFA3402CB00B7|title=BIENAL DE SÃO PAULO|website=www.mutualart.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://universes-in-universe.de/car/sao-paulo/2004/artists/e-guests.htm |title = Invited Artists, 26th São Paulo Biennial, 2004}}</ref> * 2003 "Recent Paintings," Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://mocanomi.org/2003/12/inka-essenhigh/ |title = Inka Essenhigh – Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami|date = 3 December 2003}}</ref> * 2002 Victoria Miro Gallery, London, England.<ref name="Kimmelman">Kimmelman, Michael. Inka Essenhigh: A Painter With Pop, The New York Times Magazine, November 17th 2002.</ref> * 303 Gallery, New York, NY.<ref name="Kimmelman"/> * 2000 Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/16/arts/art-in-review-inka-essenhigh.html|title=ART IN REVIEW; Inka Essenhigh|first=Roberta|last=Smith|date=June 16, 2000|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> * 1999 Deitch Projects, New York, NY.<ref>[http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/reviews/mahoney/mahoney2-5-99.asp Mahoney, Robert. 1999]</ref> * "American Landscape: Recent Paintings by Inka Essenhigh," Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.albrightknox.org/art/exhibitions/american-landscape-recent-paintings-inka-essenhigh |title = American Landscape: Recent Paintings by Inka Essenhigh | Albright-Knox}}</ref> * 1998 "Pop Surrealism," Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT.<ref>Madoff, Steven Henry. October 1998. Artforum International, Vol. 37, No. 2</ref>
==Collections== Essenhigh's work is included in the following art collections: * Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, U.S.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.albrightknox.org/person/inka-essenhigh/ | title=Inka Essenhigh | Albright-Knox}}</ref> * Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, U.S.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://denverartmuseum.org/calendar/mindful-looking-june-19-2018 | title=Mindful Looking (June 19, 2018) | access-date=December 12, 2018 | archive-date=December 15, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215224708/https://denverartmuseum.org/calendar/mindful-looking-june-19-2018 | url-status=dead }}</ref> * Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida, U.S.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://mocanomi.org/2013/04/inka-essenhigh-poor-puppy-2004/ | title=Inka Essenhigh – Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami| date=24 April 2013}}</ref> * Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York, U.S.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.moma.org/search?query=inka+essenhigh | title=Search | MoMA}}</ref> * Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., U.S.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/inka-essenhigh-30388 | title=Inka Essenhigh}}</ref> * Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, U.S.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/search/Pages/results.aspx?k=inka%20essenhigh |title = Search: Inka essenhigh}}</ref> * Tate Modern, London, England<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/inka-essenhigh-3028 |title = Inka Essenhigh born 1969}}</ref> * Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, U.S.<ref name="auto4"/> * Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York, U.S.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://collection.whitney.org/artist/5445/InkaEssenhigh |title = Inka Essenhigh}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.inkaessenhigh.art Official website] * [https://americanart.si.edu/artist/inka-essenhigh-30388 Spring, 2006, Oil on Canvas at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art] * [http://collection.whitney.org/artist/5445/InkaEssenhigh Collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art] * [https://www.moma.org/artists/8191 Collection at the Museum of Modern Art] * [http://www.drawingcenter.org/en/drawingcenter/5/exhibitions/9/upcoming/1667/inka-essenhigh/ Installation at the Drawing Center]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Essenhigh, Inka}} Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:People from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania Category:Columbus College of Art and Design alumni Category:20th-century American painters Category:21st-century American painters Category:Painters from New York (state) Category:20th-century American women painters Category:21st-century American women painters