Inka Essenhigh's painted visions are richly colored distorted fables peopled with archetypes, sprites, and anthropomorphized nature. Inka works strictly from her imagination, sometimes seeing the image in the minds’ eye, sometimes working more abstractly, using colors and shapes to paint an experience she would like to share, such as early morning light, a fragrance or a landscape that reflects a state of mind. The imagery is imbued with a dream-like sense and a collective unconscious. mischievous narratives make their way into each landscape, building, and figure. Its pristine, high-gloss surfaces and accentuated colors Essenhigh's work moves towards an almost sculptural three-dimensionality in its delineation of forms.
Born in 1969, Essenhigh lives and works in New York. She has exhibited at the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, USA; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, USA (2023); Denver Art Museum, Colorado USA (2022); Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy (2022); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California, USA (2021); The Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, Maine, USA (2020); USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL, USA (2020); American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, USA (2019); Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy (2018); the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville (2016 and 2012); Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (2013); Dayton Art Institute (2011); Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport (2011); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2007); The Royal Academy of Art, London (2006); Domus Artium 2, Salamanca (2005); São Paulo Biennial (2004); Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (2003) and the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2003). Her work is in the collections of major museums including Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Denver Art Museum; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; Museum of Modern Art / P.S.1 Center for Contemporary Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Seattle Art Museum; Tate, London; Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Recent solo exhibitions include Other Worlds: Landscapes and Still Lifes, Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Colorado USA (2023); Inka Essenhigh, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, USA (2023); Inka Essenhigh, Victoria Miro Gallery, Venice, Italy (2021), and Inka Essenhigh, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, USA (2020).
CV
Miles McEnery Gallery
Victoria Miro
EDUCATION
1994 MFA, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
1992 BFA, Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus, OH
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO
2021
Victoria Miro Gallery, Venice, Italy
2020
Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
2019
“Other Worlds: Inka Essenhigh,” Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA
“Uchronia,” Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
2018
“Parallel Lines,” Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Inka Essenhigh: Manhattanhenge,” The Drawing Center, New York, NY
“A Fine Line,” Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA; traveled to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
2016
“Between Worlds,” Frist Center, Nashville, TN
“New Work,” Honolulu Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
2015
“Stars and Flowers,” Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO
2014
“Comet Dust & Crystal Shards,” Jacob Lewis Gallery, New York, NY
Columbus College of Art & Design, Joseph V. Canzani Center, Columbus, OH
2012
“The Natural and the Man-Made,” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2011
“Project Room: Inka Essenhigh,” Pace Prints, New York, NY
2010
303 Gallery, New York, NY
2008
Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
2006
303 Gallery, New York, NY
2005
Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
DA2 Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca, Spain
2004
Sint-Lukasgalerie, Brussels, Belgium
“Etchings,” Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York, NY
2003
Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
Galleria il Capricorno, Venice, Italy
Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
2002
Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
Miles McEnery Gallery 525 West 22nd Street | 515 West 22nd Street | 511 West 22nd Street | 520 West 21st Street New York, NY 10011
303 Gallery, New York, NY
2001
“Works on paper,” Victoria Miro (Project Room), London, United Kingdom
“Works on paper,” Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY
2000
Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY
1999
“New Paintings,” Deitch Projects, New York, NY
“American Landscapes: Recent Paintings by Inka Essenhigh,” New Room of Contemporary Art, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1998
“Recent Paintings,” Stefan Stux Gallery, New York, NY
1997
“Wallpaper Paintings,” La MaMa La Galleria, New York, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
“Farnsworth at 75: New Voices from Maine in American Art,” Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
“Rounding the Circle: The Mary and Alfred Shands Collection,” Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
2022
“Why I Make Art” (curated by Brian Alfred), Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
“The Supernatural in Art,” Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY
“Psychedelic Landscapes,” Eric Firestone Gallery, New York, NY
“If you forget my name, You will go astray,” Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA
“The View from Here,” Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
“COMPETERE: An Exhibition of Artist Couples,” The Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus State University, GA
“Empire of Water,” The Church, Sag Harbor, NY
“Disruption: Works from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection,” Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
2021
“Kavi Gupta at Regan Rohde’s Art & Conversation,” West Palm Beach, FL
“New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century,” Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
“Wild at Heart,” Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY
“Landscape & Memory,” Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY
2020
“Really.” (curated by Inka Essenhigh & Ryan McGinness), Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
“Do You Think it Needs a Cloud?,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
“Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of Coronavirus,” University of South Florida Art Museum, Tampa, FL
“The Figure in Solitude,” Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Radical Optimism,” Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Skirting the Line: Painting between Abstraction & Representation,” Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
2019
“FIXED CONTAINED” (curated by Tomokazu Matsuyama), Kotaro Nukaga, Tokyo, Japan
“Not All Doors Are The Same,” Booth Gallery, New York, NY
Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
2018
“Belief in Giants,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
“Parallel Lives,” Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Le Nuove Frontiere della Pittura,” Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy
2016
“Dead Among The Dead!,” Ellis King, Dublin, Ireland
“Imagine,” Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy
“Introductions,” La MaMa La Galleria, New York, NY
Miles McEnery Gallery 525 West 22nd Street | 515 West 22nd Street | 511 West 22nd Street | 520 West 21st Street New York, NY 10011
2015
“Eden, éden” (curated by Timothée Chaillou), Galerie Torri, Paris, France
“The Ukrainian Diaspora: Women Artists 1908-2015,” The Ukrainian Museum, New York, NY
“Painters NYC,” Páramo Galeria, Guadalajara, Mexico and El Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños, Oaxaca, Mexico
2014
“Disturbing Innocence,” The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
“Sargent’s Daughters,” Sargent’s Daughters, New York, NY
2013
“The Golden Ass,” Blindarte Contemporanea, Naples, Italy
“Cinematic Visions: Painting at the Edge of Reality,” Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
“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; traveled to Winnipeg Art
Gallery, Manitoba, Canada; and the 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: The Image in Contemporary Painting,” Visual Arts Gallery, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
2007
“Counterparts: Contemporary Painters and Their Influences,” Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA
“The Game of Multiple Meaning: Symbolism and the Art of the Present,” Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany
“Comic Abstraction: Image-Breaking, Image-Making,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
“COMIX,” Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense, Denmark
“Imagination Becomes Reality,” Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie/Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, Germany
2006
“Painting Codes,” Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy
“The Compulsive Line: Etching 1900 to Now,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
“USA Today: New American Art from the Saatchi Collection,” Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom
“Imagination Becomes Reality. Part III: Talking Pictures,” Goetz Collection, Munich, Germany
“Motion on Paper,” Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, United Kingdom
“Art on Paper 2006: The 39th Exhibition,” Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
2005
“Life and Limb” (curated by David Humphrey), Feign Contemporary, New York, NY
“Baroque and Neobaroque. The Hell of the Beautiful,” Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca, Spain
2004
“Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque” (curated by Robert Storr), SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
Fifth International Biennial, Santa Fe, NM
26th São Paulo Art Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil
“Funny Cuts: Cartoons and Comics in Contemporary Art,” Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
“Perspectives at 25,” Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX
2003
“Painting Pictures: Painting and Media in the Digital Age,” Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany
“Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation,” Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, PA; traveled to Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA; and the University of North Texas, Denton, TX
“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,” Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
“Drawing,” G Gallery, Washington, D.C.
“Heaven & Hell,” Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, NY
Miles McEnery Gallery 525 West 22nd Street | 515 West 22nd Street | 511 West 22nd Street | 520 West 21st Street New York, NY 10011
2002
“The Galleries Show,” Royal Academy of Art, London, United Kingdom
“Pertaining to Painting” (curated by Paula Morsiani), Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX and Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX
“Jay Davis, Inka Essenhigh, Christian Schuman,” Angstrom Gallery, Dallas, TX
“La Part de l’Autre,” Carré d’Art - Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, Nîmes, France
2001
“My Reality: Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation,” Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA; traveled to Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH; Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA; and the Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL
“Hybrids: International Contemporary Painting,” Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
“Braille,” Angstrom Gallery, Dallas, TX
2nd Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
“Works on paper: from Acconci to Zittel,” Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
“Casino 2001, 1st Quadrennial of Contemporary Art,” SMAK: Stedelijk Museum voor Actuelle Kunst, Ghent, Belgium
2000
“Greater New York: New Art in New York Now,” P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY
“The Figure: Another State of Modernism,” Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY
“Deitch/Steinberg: New Editions,” Deitch Projects, New York, NY
“Emotional Rescue,” Center for Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA
“To Infinity and Beyond,” Brooke Alexander, New York, NY
1999
“Pleasure Dome,” Jessica Fredericks Gallery, New York, NY
“The Armory Show,” Stefan Stux Gallery, New York, NY
“A Room with a View,” Sixth @ Prince Fine Art, New York, NY
1998
“Blade Runner,” Caren Golden Fine Art, New York, NY
“The New Surrealism,” Pamela Auchincloss Project Space, New York, NY
“Wild,” Exit Art/The First World, New York, NY
“Pop Surrealism,” Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
“Summer Review, 98,” Stefan Stux Gallery, New York, NY
“Celebrating Diversity: Contemporary Women Painters,” Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Brookville, NY
“ANATOMY/INTELLECT,” Stefanelli Exhibition Space, New York, NY
1997
“Sex/Industry” (curated by John Yau), Stefan Stux Gallery, New York, NY
“The Art Exchange Fair,” Stefan Stux Gallery, New York, NY
“Girls! Girls! Girls!,” Tricia Collins Grand Salon, New York, NY
1996
“Set Off: Inaugural Group Show,” View Room Exhibitions, New York, NY
“Underexposed: Nine Young American Painters,” André Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
“Featured Web Page Artist for December,” Artists’ Space, New York, NY
“Night of 1000 Drawings,” Artists’ Space, New York, NY
1994
“Juried Group Show,” School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
1993
“Young Ukrainian American Painters Group Show,” Ukrainian Museum, New York, NY
“Work-Play; Picture Thinking and the Analogical Imagination,” Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY
“Group Show: Inka Essenhigh, Stephen Mumford and Leemour Pelli: Paintings,” School of Visual Arts, Wooster Street Gallery, New York, NY
Miles McEnery Gallery 525 West 22nd Street | 515 West 22nd Street | 511 West 22nd Street | 520 West 21st Street New York, NY 10011
SELECT PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Miami, FL
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
AWARDS
2019 Arts and Letters Award in Art, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
2014 CCAD Alumni Award for Excellence, Columbus, OH
SELECT PUBLICATIONS
2023
Inka Essenhigh, New York: Miles McEnery Gallery.
2022
Alfred, Brian, Why I Make Art: Contemporary Artists’ Stories About Life & Work, Los Angeles: Atelier Éditions, 63-74.
Great Women Painters, London: Phaidon.
2021
New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century, Berkeley: UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
2020
Inka Essenhigh, New York: Miles McEnery Gallery.
2019
Bradway, Todd, et al., Landscape Painting Now: From Pop Abstraction to New Romanticism, D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers Inc.
2018
Inka Essenhigh, New York: Miles McEnery Gallery.
2007
Perspectives @ 25, Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum.
Counterparts: Contemporary Painters and Their Influences, Virginia Beach: Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Triumph of Painting Part III, London: Saatchi Gallery.
2006
Post Modern Portraiture from the Logan Collection, Vail, CO: The Logan Collection.
Mullins, Charlotte, Painting People, New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.
2005
Hoptman, Laura, Inka Essenhigh, Salamanca, Spain: DA2 Domus Artium 2.
The Triumph of Painting, London: Saatchi Gallery.
2004
Bienal De São Paulo
2003
Clearwater, Bonnie, Inka Essenhigh, Miami: Museum of Contemporary Art.
Reverie: Works from the Collection of Douglas S. Cramer, Louisville, Kentucky: The Speed Museum.
2002
Comic Release!: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.
Morsiani, Paola and Imogen Cornwall-Jones, Inka Essenhigh, London: Victoria Miro Gallery.
Miles McEnery Gallery West 22nd Street | 515 West 22nd Street | 511 West 22nd Street | 520 West 21st Street New York, NY 10011
2001
Mayntz, Eberhard, Saskia Bos, etc. 2. berlin biennale, volumes 1 and 2, Berlin: berlin biennale für zeitgenössische Kunst.
Grunenberg, Christoph, Hybrid: International Contemporary Painting, Liverpool, United Kingdom: Tate Liverpool.
1999
Dreishpoon, Douglas, American Landscapes: Recent Paintings by Inka Essenhigh, Buffalo, New York: Albright-Knox Gallery.
1998
Klein, Richard, Dominique Nahas and Ingrid Schaffner, Pop Surrealism, Ridgefield, CT: The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.