Inka Essenhigh is a painter based in NY. She studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio and the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her work has been shown around the world including the Royal Academy in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and MOMA New York.
Essenhigh pulls inspiration from oriental art, 19th century caricatures and contemporary comics, among many others. Patricia Ellis describes Essenhigh’s paintings as “both exotic and operatic: envisioning futuristic mythologies frozen in dynamic moments of suspended animation.” What is most interesting about Essenhigh’s work is that it fluctuates between abstraction and representation. The glossy finishes of her more recent paintings create a sense of “hyper-artificiality.” They reference the perfection of 3D animation and virtual reality. Ellis goes on to say: “Inka Essenhigh's paintings overtly celebrate their superficiality, embracing humour, violence and chaos, within their vapid, magnetic allure. Inka Essenhigh conceives her paintings as being quintessentially American; a brand of futurism that's instantly attractive and sublimely infinite.”
Essenhigh’s paintings are immediately attractive. Her use of color and the fluidity of her subject matter is instantly gratifying in that it’s easy on the eyes. I am effortlessly lost in her work, contemplating the multiple possibilities of what direction her tableaux’s will take. Her work seems to reference an invented mythology or legend. However, specific event(s) her work is referencing seems not to matter; her invented mythology seems more of a back-story, letting the beauty of her style speak for itself. I envy Essenhigh’s style and envy her ability to draw attention to her work through her aesthetic. I strive to achieve that in my own work and can appreciate and pull inspiration from Essenhigh’s capability to do so.
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